Another one-shot kill.
This time, John had plundered a Shift talent.
He didn't hesitate—he immediately modified its movement speed to 100% and movement range to 200%!
After the modification, Shift was effectively indistinguishable from a blink or teleport.
Only a dozen or so players remained on the battlefield.
After the swordsman Raymond fell, they finally realized the situation.
"Everyone, attack together! Take him down!"
Too late.
John focused his mind.
In an instant, he Shifted behind two mages.
At such close range, with a 200% Shift range, John became a reaper.
As his daggers danced, blood holes appeared in the throats of the two mages.
[-1589!]
[-1577!]
Their HP vanished instantly.
Everything they carried was plundered.
[You have plundered B-level talent: MP Recovery]
[MP Recovery: Restores 10% MP when activated]
[You have plundered B-level talent: CD Reduction]
[CD Reduction: Reduces skill cooldown by 10% when activated]
[You have plundered…]
The remaining guild members weren't far apart.
Almost simultaneously, John activated Shift again.
His figure blurred, dodging the sweeping strikes of several greatswords.
Reappearing like a phantom, he materialized behind a warrior.
[-1589!]
The damage from his modified dagger exploded!
Even a defense-specialized warrior was no different from a fragile target.
[You have plundered B-level talent: HP Recovery]
[HP Recovery: Restores 1% HP per second for 10 seconds when activated]
Three more killed instantly.
He even perfectly dodged all attacks.
The remaining players stared in horror.
What kind of broken talent is this?
Some wanted to beg for mercy.
But the next moment, a crimson damage number appeared above their heads.
They were slashed down, respawning back in Novice Village.
Despite being over a dozen players versus John alone, it had become a one-sided massacre.
The plain dagger in his hands was like the scythe of death.
Every strike claimed a life effortlessly.
[-1506!]
Another one-shot.
The archer Adam was taken down by John.
[You have plundered A-level talent: Boundary Break]
[Boundary Break: Increases attack range by 50% when activated]
By now, around John lay the bodies of over a dozen fallen players.
The entire guild had nearly been slaughtered by him alone.
Only the warrior Kaer remained.
In his past life, this traitor had dug out John's heart with his own hands.
Kaer had fled the moment John killed the two mages, running over fifty meters ahead.
Even with Shift, John couldn't catch him.
But he didn't panic.
He calmly opened the newly acquired Boundary Break talent panel.
System points had accumulated to 2,500.
"Enough."
John decisively invested 500 points, maxing the talent.
The attack range instantly soared from 50% to 550%!
"Good apprentice, your master will reunite you with your fate."
John locked onto Kaer's position and threw his dagger with a swift motion.
Boundary Break activated.
The dagger, which should have only traveled a few meters, shot out like a meteor with the talent's power.
In the blink of an eye, it struck Kaer's head.
The force was immense.
Kaer's skull shattered like a watermelon.
His headless body fell to the ground.
[You have plundered A-level talent: Berserk]
[Berserk: Increases attack power by 50% for 10 seconds when activated]
With Kaer's death, silence fell.
Twelve corpses.
Twelve murderers who had sent John to the altar in his previous life—all slain and plundered.
John looked at the corpses with satisfaction.
"This is just the interest. Next, I'll slowly collect the principal."
He retrieved his dagger and sat on a relatively clean rock.
Having focused on revenge, he hadn't yet modified the talent values.
Now that he had a moment, he carefully reviewed and adjusted them.
"Early-game equipment is useless. The only valuable things are these twelve plundered talents."
John opened the talent panel.
The first and most noteworthy was Universal Synthesis, plundered from Guild Leader Sein.
Being the only S-level talent, its effects were decent.
"Collect 200 items of the same category and same level to synthesize a higher-level item."
For example, collecting 200 Novice Robes could synthesize a higher-tier F-grade cloth armor.
"200 items just to activate this? Its level seems inflated."
John frowned.
The game's drop rates were extremely low.
Even gathering 20 items was difficult, let alone 200.
To truly collect 200 items alone could take forever.
This talent was more suitable for someone like Sein, who controlled a guild and could assign players to gather materials.
Normal players would consider it practically useless.
But John had system points.
He opened the detailed view of Universal Synthesis and began hitting the − button beside 200 relentlessly.
When it couldn't be reduced further, he stopped.
"Modify!"
[190 system points consumed. Universal Synthesis item count modified to 10]
Now, only 10 items of the same category and level were needed to synthesize a higher-tier item.
The 190 points were well spent!
"This talent must be SS-level now."
According to John's understanding, Apocalypse talents ranked from F to SSS, just like items.
Very convenient.
After modifying Universal Synthesis, John began adjusting the other talents.
Although there were twelve talents, they fell into five categories:
Universal Synthesis – special synthesis type.
CD Reduction – cooldown reduction type.
MP Recovery – MP regeneration type.
Boundary Break – range increase type.
Shift – mobility enhancement type.
Other talents were lower-tier variants in these sequences, with little modification value.
Moreover, John realized: when modifying multiple talents in the same sequence, only the highest-level talent actually takes effect.
For example, he modified both A-level Shift and B-level Haste, both in the Shift sequence.
Ultimately, only Shift was effective.
This applied to equipment too—higher-level gear always took precedence.
Again, he invested points.
All five talent sequences were maxed.
Looking at the varied talent levels, John had no worries.
"With 100% plunder rate, upgrading all talents to SSS is only a matter of time!"