Chapter 65: [65]: Greed of the Masses, The 40% Suppression
Levi stood in the center of the massive iron platform, resting the heavy haft of his Sovereign’s Deathknell scythe against his shoulder. A giant mountain of glowing Platinum and Diamond-tier loot boxes sat on the iron grates right in front of him.
Up in the top left corner of his vision, the buff icon for the [Tear of the Chained] blinked twice and vanished.
Levi immediately felt the massive surge of digital power drain right out of his avatar. His Strength plummeted from the absurd 1,172 back down to his permanent baseline of 232. The VR helmet simulated a wave of heavy lethargy, making his arms feel like they were suddenly wrapped in wet concrete. He let out a long, tired sigh and rolled his neck.
Up on the crater rim, the massive guild alliances hadn’t moved. Thousands of players were just standing on the rocky cliffs, completely silent, staring down at the single player who had just deleted a Level 40 World Boss.
Then, Gideon spoke up.
The massive Level 17 tank player leading the Ironclad guild pushed his way to the edge of the cliff. He pointed a thick, armored finger down at Levi.
"Did you see that?" Gideon yelled in the proximity chat. "His glowing aura just vanished! His buff is gone!"
Ovidia, the leader of Solar Lance, frowned and stepped up next to him. "What does that mean?"
"It means he’s on cooldown!" Gideon said, his voice rising with desperate greed. "He just soloed a World Boss. You really think a solo player has any health or mana left after a fight like that? He blew his ultimate consumable to get the kill. He’s completely tapped out. He’s a glass cannon sitting on empty!"
Gideon looked down at the massive pile of glowing Diamond-tier loot boxes. In Starfall, World Boss loot wasn’t bound to the player until it was actually picked up and placed into the inventory. Right now, it was just sitting on the ground. Anyone could grab it.
"That loot is supposed to be for a fifty-man raid," Gideon yelled, turning back to his surviving guild members. "If we let him walk away with it, he controls the entire server economy! PK him! He has no buffs left! Grab the loot!"
Ovidia shook her head, taking a step back. "You’re insane, Gideon. I’m not sending my guild down there."
"Fine! Ironclad will take it all!" Gideon barked. He raised his broadsword. "Ironclad Vanguard, charge! Lock him down and grab the boxes!"
A hundred players wearing the heavy iron armor of the Ironclad guild roared and rushed down the rocky slope. They weren’t using tactics. They were just blinded by pure MMO greed. They scrambled over the cooling magma rivers and charged directly onto the iron platform, weapons drawn and eyes locked on the glowing loot.
Levi heard the shouting. He turned around and watched the massive wave of players sprinting toward him.
He didn’t run. He didn’t even reach for a health potion. He just stood there and let out an incredibly tired sigh.
"MMO players never learn," Levi muttered. "They see a boss die, and their brains just turn off."
He opened his interface and ran the easiest math of his life.
The Ironclad vanguard members were Level 20.
Thanks to the massive 30,000,000 XP drop from the World Boss, Levi was now Level 28.
That was an eight-level gap. But this time, Levi wasn’t the one suffering the penalty. The game’s Level Suppression mechanic worked both ways. Because the attacking players were eight levels lower than him, the system was going to slap them with a massive 40% damage reduction penalty.
The first wave of twenty tanks reached him. They didn’t even bother trying to talk. They just raised their broadswords and axes and swung wildly at Levi’s chest and back.
Levi didn’t block. He just let them hit him.
Heavy iron weapons slammed into his pitch-black Obsidian Carapace armor. The VR pain engine barely registered the impacts. It felt like someone was hitting him with rolled-up newspapers.
The average Level 20 tank had roughly 250 Attack. Levi’s current Defense was at exactly 183, meant they were dealing 67 raw damage.
Now, the system applied their 40% suppression penalty. The game literally deleted 40% of their damage just because their level was too low.
[-40] [-40] [-40] [-40]
A handful of tiny, pathetic red numbers floated up from Levi’s avatar.
Levi’s maximum health pool was 3,160 HP. Taking 40 damage a swing was an absolute joke. He could literally stand here for five minutes, go make a sandwich in the real world, and he still wouldn’t be dead.
The Ironclad tanks stopped swinging for a second, staring at the tiny damage numbers floating above Levi’s head in total confusion.
"Why isn’t his health bar moving?" one of the tanks panicked.
Levi gripped the Sovereign’s Deathknell with both hands. The shadowy aura of his SSS-Rank class flared aggressively around the silver blade.
"Because math doesn’t care about your feelings," Levi said.
"Phantom Step."
He completely bypassed the front row of confused tanks and teleported exactly five meters forward, reappearing dead in the center of the hundred-man clump.
He was entirely surrounded by players. It was the perfect setup.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!" Levi shouted.
The Gold-tier scythe erupted in a blinding mixture of dark shadow and gold light. Levi twisted his hips violently, using the heavy momentum of the weapon to carve a massive, ten-meter-wide cone directly through the crowd.
The system processed the damage without any suppression penalties holding Levi back. He was the higher-level entity here. He hit them for full, unmitigated value.
Most of the players in the crowd were wearing basic Silver-tier armor that gave them maybe 150 Defense. Even if the game factored in their armor, the damage output was completely apocalyptic. Level 20 players only had around 1,000 Max HP if they were fully kitted out.
The massive wave of dark-gold energy slammed into the Ironclad guild.
There was no block animation. There was no knockback.
Fifty massive red numbers exploded into the air at the exact same time.
[-2,400] [-2,450] [-2,400] [-2,500]
Fifty players were instantly atomized. The heavy scythe cleaved entirely through their avatars, cutting through shields, plate armor, and health bars in a single, fluid motion. Half of the Ironclad guild shattered into glowing blue polygons simultaneously.
The sound of fifty players logging out by death at the exact same millisecond was deafening.
The remaining fifty players in the backline stopped running. They just stared at the massive empty space in the middle of their formation.
"What the..." a rogue whispered, dropping his daggers.
Levi didn’t stop. His Agility was sitting at 216. His derived Speed stat was an absolutely untouchable 236.
To the surviving Level 20 players, Levi didn’t even look like a character model anymore. He looked like a glitching black blur.
Levi dashed out of the skill animation and unleashed a rapid flurry of basic physical strikes. His unbuffed 724 Attack easily chewed through their defenses. He swung the scythe, landing hits for over 600 damage a pop.
[-600] [-600] [-600]
He carved through the backline mages and healers. Two hits were enough to drop any player to zero health. When a tank tried to raise his shield to block, Levi just hit him twice, dropping his health below 20%, and immediately burned 50 Mana to cast [Soul Harvest].
The pitch-black spectral guillotine materialized in the air and slammed down, decapitating the tank and resetting Levi’s Phantom Step cooldown.
He blinked three meters to the right. Swung his scythe. Executed another player. Blinked again.
It was a total, systematic massacre. The Ironclad members couldn’t run away. They couldn’t fight back. They were just fodder.
In less than twenty seconds, all one hundred players from the Ironclad vanguard were completely wiped from the server. The iron platform was covered in dropped wooden staffs, cheap iron shields, and hundreds of copper coins.
Up on the crater rim, Gideon was hyperventilating. He stumbled backward, falling onto the dirt. He had just watched his entire elite strike team get erased in twenty seconds by a guy using basic attacks.
Ovidia stared down at the platform, her face completely pale. She turned around to face her own guild, Solar Lance.
"Nobody moves," Ovidia commanded, her voice trembling slightly. "Do not even look at him. We are not engaging."
Down on the platform, Levi stopped swinging. He flicked his scythe, letting the dark aura dissipate, and toggled off his Siphon Aura to let his 1,060 Mana pool recover.
He didn’t bother looking up at the crater rim. He knew the surviving guilds weren’t going to try that again.
He turned around and walked casually back toward the center of the platform. The massive pile of Diamond and Platinum-tier loot boxes was still sitting there, completely untouched.
"Now," Levi said, cracking his knuckles. "Let’s see what a God drops."