The auction was burning with madness.
Numbers were doubling.
Players were shouting.
Bids were exploding like flashes of light.
As for Renji…
He stood firm at the center of the storm, breathing heavily, sweating, clutching his torn arm with his uninjured hand—as if trying to keep his soul from escaping.
Two million eight hundred thousand.
Three million.
Then… inner silence.
He began to think.
But not ordinary thinking.
It was cold… gray… lethal thinking.
"What if I sacrifice the arm?"
A shiver.
"Three million… maybe five… ten."
A burning breath.
"Fortune. A new beginning. A chance to take control… to advance… to escape this hell."
But one moment—
A moment of terrifying logic—
Split his thoughts in two.
If he lost his arm… he wouldn't be able to fire a single bullet.
You can't aim with one arm.
And he was already… below average with two.
So could he survive without a weapon… without skill… without a functioning body?
No.
He wouldn't be able to move ten meters in this forest.
That bullet… he didn't obtain it by luck.
He obtained it because of his arm.
So how could he sacrifice what earned him wealth to buy wealth?
Who is the idiot who cuts off his legs to run faster?
Then the sentence that buried all gray thinking appeared:
"Maybe… perhaps… the system can give a magical arm…"
He stopped.
He clenched his teeth.
The word "maybe" was poison.
And he knew it well.
"No. There is no certainty. No time. No spare body. No second chance."
He raised his head with difficulty…
Turned toward the platform…
And typed into the message box above all the noise:
[Rinji]: I want silver surgical thread only.
[Rinji]: I don't want money. I don't want anything else. Just the silver thread. Now.
With that sentence…
The auction froze for a moment.
Then the responses exploded.
[MadRat]: You're… rejecting 3 million!?
[BlueHammer]: Is he stupid or dying?
[Goliath44]: Impossible… is he serious?
[Mira7]: Thread? Just thread?!!!
[xXDarkWolf]: People… he's literally choking to death, leave him alone.
[Void]: Respectfully… the egg is still warm, but he just broke the market.
But among all the messages…
One appeared that was completely different.
GoldenHealX:
I have surgical thread… but not silver.
Gold.
And with it, a "NeedleEdge MK-II" rifle.
The words fell on Renji's head like heavy rain.
Gold?
A rifle?
The deal sounded unreal.
No time to verify.
No time to think.
No time to understand why someone like this would offer something of such value for a single bullet.
But Renji…
Didn't look for reasons.
He looked only for survival.
He typed:
[Rinji]: Agreed. Immediately. Now.
A small window opened:
"Direct Barter – Both parties must agree."
His hands were shaking violently.
He looked at the clock at the bottom of the network:
02:14
02:13
02:12
Literally two minutes.
Two minutes… or he would be expelled from the network like a dead body.
GoldenHealX opened the confirmation window.
Renji's left arm was nearly paralyzed…
His eyes half-closed…
His vision fading in and out.
Both of them were pressing the same window.
The same frame.
Every second was a guillotine.
01:48
01:36
01:21
The system requested confirmation.
Then confirmation of the confirmation.
Then a review:
"Do you wish to proceed with the trade? This action cannot be reversed."
"Come onnn…"
Renji said it without a sound.
GoldenHealX pressed.
Renji pressed.
The window was still thinking…
The loading circle spun… and spun…
00:58
00:43
Sweat poured down his forehead.
The system requested additional verification:
"Verifying item ownership."
"Damn you…"
He was panting.
00:29
00:18
Everything slowed…
The loading reached 80%…
85%…
87%…
90%…
Then—
At the very moment he was waiting for the success window to open…
The screen shook.
And a notification appeared:
[Network time has ended.]
---
Night in that magical forest looked like a painting drawn by a nervous artist…
Trees as tall as skyscrapers, their trunks glowing with phosphorescent veins like living arteries, and ground covered in moss that breathed slowly…
And above all that strange stillness—
A man stood on a wide branch, wearing a yellow duck mask with wide eyes and a foolish smile, but only one thing about him was not foolish:
The rifle in his hands.
It was no ordinary rifle.
Its barrel glowed with blue engravings, and the muzzle bloomed like a flower whenever it charged energy.
Its name in the system: QuackShot X-900 – A Transforming Magical Sniper Weapon.
Each shot… made a faint sound like a duck's quack, yet carried enough power to pierce solid rock.
The masked sniper was tracking his target below.
That "target" was a strange creature—half tiger, half light—crawling between the roots of gigantic trees, leaving behind a trail of sparks that glittered like stars.
[Target detected: Sky Tiger]
Rewards: 95,000 Vital Points or 120,000 Coins (Optional)
The sniper moved the rifle…
Stabilized it…
The world fell silent except for the beat of his heart.
Before he fired—
A bubble-shaped notification appeared over his right eye:
[Incoming Call – Encrypted System Channel]
He pressed it with a heavy sigh.
A calm—but clear—voice came through:
???: Listen… I've got news that'll make you spit from under that mask.
The sniper raised an eyebrow, though no one could see it behind the mask.
— I hope it's not like the last news about the exploding rabbit… I'm still pulling hair off the tree.
The caller laughed.
???: No… worse.
Someone was about to trade a Multiplier Bullet… for surgical thread.
He froze.
Then burst out laughing:
— Impossible! A Multiplier Bullet? That's worth at least a hundred million… for thread? Who's that genius?
???: The moment of stupidity ended quickly. The deal… didn't happen.
His voice instantly grew serious.
— Why? Another player interfered? Connection cut?
???: The system itself cut the network before it reached 90%. As if… it was protecting him.
A short silence followed.
Since when does the system protect anyone?
???: Since players started dropping like flies.
The system needs… as many people alive as possible right now.
A cold breeze passed, shaking the feathers of the yellow mask.
— That's… dangerous. If the system starts acting like a frightened creature… then disaster is closer than we think.
The caller suddenly lowered his voice, so much that the sniper had to lean slightly to hear:
???: Listen… there's something else.
"Sniper X" has started moving too much.
The players are afraid… and so is the system.
A chill ran under the sniper's mask, despite its ridiculous appearance.
— Don't say that name out loud.
The caller continued in a strangled voice:
???: The question is… where did "that player" get a Multiplier Bullet?
From the World War III stage?
Or the space station?
The sniper exhaled slowly, then said calmly:
— I don't know. Maybe from the first stage.
The caller exploded:
???: The first stage!!!?
Are you kidding me?
We can barely get a rusty bow there! How could he—
— I said maybe… I don't know. You investigate further. That's your job.
The caller went silent for a few seconds… then spoke in a completely different tone:
???: We must… we must recruit him into the guild immediately.
This level of luck or assignment cannot be ignored.
The sniper replied as he stared at the forest beneath his feet:
— Recruit him?
That's assuming he even manages to clear the stages.
Then he placed his index finger on the trigger…
The rifle began to charge…
Blue light washed over the forest trees around him…
And a faint quacking sound preceded the explosion.