[You have slain 'Swift Runner (Bronze-tier)'.]
[Gained 600 XP.]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 3!]
[Congratulations! You have gained 2 Evolution Points!]
[Gained 55 Days of Tradeable Lifespan.]
As the boss collapsed, Silas vanished back into the veil of Shadow Cloak. The system prompts were a silent symphony of progress in his mind.
"Level 3. The exit threshold is met," Silas mused. "But 22 seconds of cooldown is still too long for true efficiency. I need more evolution."
He walked calmly to the remains of the Swift Runner. To Titan and his team, the scene was haunting. One moment, the boss's loot was scattered on the charred earth; the next, the items were simply gone, as if erased from existence.
"Friend, thank you," Titan said, his voice deep and sincere. He clasped his fist in his palm, a traditional gesture of respect in the Great Federation. "We owe you our lives."
"Thanking me?" Silas's voice drifted through the trees, cold and disembodied. "In the wilds, gratitude is a weakness. Never trust a stranger out here."
Titan's expression grew somber. "I understand. Thank you for the reminder, brother."
In the God-Abandoned Game, only the towns were safe. Outside the fence, "Friendly Fire" was a misnomer; players could butcher each other for half of their remaining lifespan. If Silas had wanted to, he could have harvested Titan's entire team in seconds. But he didn't. They were too "poor", they had no tradeable lifespan worth the effort of a strike.
Titan, realizing the expert meant them no harm, signaled his team to retreat. "We'll head back to town and let you sort your spoils in peace. I'm Titan. If you ever need a heavy shield, look me up."
As they turned to leave, a mud-caked girl with a priest's staff, the one who had been hit by the Polluter, waved frantically at the empty air. "Hey! Wait! Expert! I'm Black Dahlia! Can I add you to my friends list?"
Silas almost let out a snort. He knew her. In his past life, her real name was Lily, and she was as brilliant as she was bubbly. Her class, The Seer, was an Isu-data specialist role that eventually made her a high-ranking official in the Federation's tactical division.
"I'm not interested in 'Black Dahlias,'" Silas replied flatly.
The girl pouted, clearly unused to being rejected, but their middle-aged Priestess, an Oracle whose healing was double the standard rate, dragged her away by the collar.
Silas watched them go. Titan's team was solid, a Holy Shield Warrior and an Oracle Priestess were a powerhouse duo. Without them, the team would have been dead long ago. But compared to the "Shadow," they were moving in slow motion.
Once they were gone, Silas activated Hand of Greed.
[Skill 'Hand of Greed' Success!]
[Gained 2 Evolution Points!]
[Gained 55 Days of Tradeable Lifespan!]
Combined with the kill rewards, Silas had netted 4 Evolution Points and nearly four months of life. He sifted through the gear. Most was junk for other classes, but one item was perfect.
[Swift Runner's Leather Greaves (Bronze): Assassin Gear. Defense +9, Resistance +5, Cooldown Speed +15%. Requirement: Level 2.]
He equipped them instantly.
In this world, "Cooldown Reduction" didn't exist as a flat percentage. It was "Cooldown Speed."
Formula: Final Cooldown = Base Cooldown / (1 + Cooldown Speed)Calculation: 26s / (1 + 0.15) = 22.61s
"Not a massive jump, but enough to tighten the loop," Silas noted. In the endgame, players would stack this to 400% or 500%, turning 20-second ultimates into 4-second spams.
He checked his Tradeable Lifespan: 268 Days.
"My pack is filling up with gear and skill books I can't use. Once I hit the limit, I'll head back to Shell Town, trade this trash for more life-currency, and look into extracting my skills into the real world."
He pushed deeper into the woods. He was moving a hundred times faster than in his previous life, but he knew the difficulty curve was about to spike. As more players entered the simulation, the "Monster Tides" would begin to form, clusters of predators that would hunt in packs of ten or twenty.
As if on cue, a scream echoed from the forest edge. Titan's team, now hunting Level 1 mobs near the town, came across a horrific sight: a six-person party being swarmed by over a dozen Crawl-Beasts.
"So many of them?" a young man shrieked as three beasts lunged for his throat. "What kind of game is this?!"
Silas didn't stop. He was the only one in Shell Town who wasn't the prey.