Chapter 75: The Vanguard of Humanity, The 100% Wall
General Malakor’s massive, eight-hundred-thousand HP health bar completely shattered into digital dust.
The Level 50 invasion commander didn’t even get to finish his death animation. The game engine just gave up. Malakor collapsed backward onto the stone steps of the Citadel Core, let out a hollow, glitching groan, and violently exploded into millions of glowing blue polygons.
The shockwave from the boss exploding knocked Levi back a half-step. He let the tip of the Sovereign’s Deathknell rest on the shattered stone floor and just leaned heavily against the haft of the scythe.
Inside his NerveDive helmet, Levi was practically suffocating. His virtual lungs were burning, and his real-world arms felt like they had been run through a meat grinder. Hacking through a 50% suppression wall with zero basic-attack damage was the most exhausting thing he had done since the server launched.
A massive, golden server-wide announcement hijacked his UI.
[Server Announcement: Event Boss Defeated.]
[The Abyssal Incursion has been successfully repelled. The Citadel Core is secure. Permanent death protocols canceled.]
Levi swiped the notification away. "Yeah, yeah. You’re welcome."
Before the polygons even hit the ground, the dense, blinding crimson aura of the harvest ripped out of the boss’s crater. It shot across the courtyard and slammed into Levi’s chest like a truck.
[Supreme Harvester triggered.]
[General Malakor’s primary stat is VIT (800).]
[You have plundered 2% of its core stat.]
[Gained +16 VIT permanently!]
A second later, the massive event XP modifier hit.
[System Notification: Gained 50,000,000 XP.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 31.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 32.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 33.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 34.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 35.]
The golden pillar of progression light crashed down on him five times in a row. It was basically a strobe light. The level-up sequence instantly wiped away the physical fatigue building up in his real-world shoulders. His health and mana pools snapped perfectly back to 100%.
Levi let out a long, relieved breath and opened his status menu.
Jumping from Level 30 straight to Level 35 gave him exactly 25 free stat points. He didn’t even have to think about where they were going. To keep breaking through the suppression penalties of endgame bosses, he needed pure, unadulterated attack power.
He dumped all 25 points directly into Strength.
He ran the math in his head as the numbers updated on his sheet.
His base Strength was 355. Adding the 25 new points brought it to exactly 380.
His Vitality had just taken a massive +16 bump from the boss plunder. It jumped from 253 to 269.
Levi checked his derived stats. With 269 Vitality, his Max HP expanded violently. 269 multiplied by 20 equaled 5,380. Add the flat 100 HP from his Obsidian Carapace armor, and his new health pool hit exactly 5,480 HP.
His base Defense also bumped up. 269 Vitality plus the 30 Armor gave him a permanent 299 Defense.
Next was the offensive math. 380 Strength multiplied by two gave him an unarmed base attack of 760. Add the 140 Attack from his Gold-tier scythe, bringing it to 900. Finally, apply the massive 20% class passive from the Herald of the Hollow.
900 multiplied by 1.2 pushed his permanent, unbuffed Total Attack to exactly 1,080.
"Over a thousand attack," Levi smirked. "I hit harder than the actual siege engines."
He closed his menu and walked over to the massive pile of loot boxes General Malakor had dropped. As he started shoving Platinum-tier item boxes and bags of gold coins into his spatial inventory, he heard the sound of timid footsteps behind him.
Levi glanced over his shoulder.
The surviving players were finally coming out of hiding. Dozens of guild members from Solar Lance, Ironclad, and a bunch of random casuals were creeping out from the alleys and climbing down from the second-story balconies.
They looked terrified. Most of them had their weapons lowered, staring at Levi like he was an active bomb waiting to go off.
Gideon, the massive tank player leading Ironclad, stepped to the front of the crowd. He looked at the empty space where the Level 50 boss used to be, then looked at Levi.
"You... you actually killed it," Gideon stammered, his voice totally flat with disbelief.
Ovidia, the mage leading Solar Lance, stood next to him. She was staring at the dark aura wrapping around Levi’s scythe. "Is he going to PK us? He has red-name status from earlier."
Levi just rolled his eyes. He didn’t even bother turning fully around. He just kept tossing loot into his bag.
"I don’t get XP for killing you guys," Levi said, his voice loud enough to carry across the quiet courtyard. "So you’re mathematically useless to me. Relax. You can go back to pretending you know how to play the game."
Gideon’s face flushed red with embarrassment, but he didn’t argue. Nobody argued. When a guy casually solos a Level 50 invasion commander while you hide on a balcony, you don’t talk back.
Suddenly, the ambient lighting in the courtyard flickered.
The players gasped and took a collective step backward, thinking another boss was spawning. But Levi just sighed. He recognized the digital static in the air.
A figure wearing a plain gray cloak materialized right next to the Citadel Core.
It was Isolde.
The players started muttering in confusion, wondering why a beginner with a wooden staff was standing next to the guy in pitch-black endgame armor. Levi ignored the crowd and walked up the steps to meet her.
"You’re late for the loot drop," Levi said casually.
Isolde didn’t look at him. She stared up at the massive blue crystal of the Citadel Core. Her blank, robotic eyes processed the data streams floating inside the stone.
"You bought this world time," Isolde stated. Her voice bypassed the game’s audio and broadcast directly into his head. "But the timeline is irreparably fractured. The game’s code is breaking."
Levi frowned. "I killed the boss. The event is over. What’s the problem?"
Isolde finally turned to look at him. For a fraction of a second, her character model glitched. A wave of harsh green static rippled across her face.
"The descending pantheon is losing patience with the digital constraints," Isolde said flatly. "They are no longer going to use avatars to merge with this reality. In exactly three months, they will descend in their true forms."
Levi stopped. The casual attitude completely vanished from his face.
In his past life, the True Descent was the absolute endgame. It was when the Gods stopped playing by the VRMMORPG’s rules and just started deleting cities in the real world. That wasn’t supposed to happen for three years.
"Three months," Levi repeated, his voice low.
"Correct," Isolde said. "The mathematical probability of human survival has dropped to 0.004 percent."
Levi stared at her blank, emotionless face. He looked down at his Sovereign’s Deathknell. He thought about the 1,080 Attack stat he just achieved. He thought about his SSS-Rank talent that literally let him steal stats from anything he killed.
He didn’t panic. He just smirked.
"A zero-point-zero-zero-four percent chance just means I have to hit them harder," Levi said. He rested the heavy scythe on his shoulder. "Let them come. I still have plenty of room to grow."