Date: June 14, 2018 (Thursday)
Location: Global Frontlines, Geneva Ground Zero
Time: 02:00 AM
It was two in the morning. Two hours had passed since the dance of death and iron began. Suddenly, the atmospheric pressure shifted violently. The black and purple portals floating in the sky became unstable.
A sharp, ear-splitting glitching sound erupted, as if a massive machine had suddenly jammed. The fractures shrank rapidly and vanished from reality in a microsecond. The sky became calm and dark once more, as if the cracks had never existed.
However, the reality on the ground was a horrific nightmare. Though the doors were closed forever, the endless flood of monsters that had already spilled onto the streets was still alive. The source had stopped, but the flood was still drowning the city.
Every fighter on the ground realized there was no time for rest. They now had to slaughter the thousands of hungry, vicious beasts standing before them, one by one. The next two hours were nothing less than a meat grinder.
The war was no longer about strategy; it was a grueling test of pure survival. Everywhere, fighters were throwing their shattered 'Cold Iron' swords to the ground. With trembling hands, they pulled fresh blades from the racks behind them.
Amidst this chaos, Richard Vance moved like a cold, emotionless machine. Every attack and every step he took was mathematically calculated. He wasted no breath and no excess energy. He had become a death algorithm.
At exactly 04:00 AM, the last remaining beast fell. A heavy, exhausted silence fell over Geneva and the other ruined cities of the world. The corpses of the monsters began to react violently, dissolving into black ash. When the acidic smoke cleared, two strange, glowing objects remained—Mana Cores and extremely dense Essence Stones.
Thousands of workers from the GDA 'Support Division' descended upon the battlefield. These scavengers carried heavy metallic carts and specialized tools, collecting the precious resources from the ash.
Richard stood perfectly still amidst the piles of corpses and iron. Suddenly, he felt a major internal shift. The low-frequency 'humming' that had vibrated in his mind for thirty days—his 'Basic Knowledge' skill—suddenly went silent.
His analytical mind understood the situation instantly. His initial task was complete. The system had provided a roadmap to survive the first wave. Now, there was no blueprint, no guide, and no pre-loaded data for the future.
Humanity now stood on an unknown, dark path. Richard accepted this terrifying truth with pure, cold logical acceptance. He threw his final, badly cracked sword to the ground and wiped the splashes of black monster blood from his face.
Inside the command bunker, live global feeds of the devastation played on massive screens. Aris stood by the main console, his hands trembling as he viewed the astronomical casualty count. Thousands of mutants had been killed in a single night.
Richard sat at his command desk without showing any emotion.
"Aris," Richard's voice carried a chill that dropped the temperature of the entire bunker. "This is no time to celebrate or mourn."
"Start preparing the reports," Richard ordered. "I need the exact numbers of how many mutants we lost today. Get to work."