This is the bonus chapter for reaching 600 Powesrstones.
--
Laeran, East Sector of the Sky Coral Main Platform, inside the cellar of an abandoned building.
Four faint lights flickered in the darkness.
[Destruction is the End]'s eyes snapped open. He gasped for air, his hand instinctively shooting up to grab his neck.
Thank god. It was still attached. No wounds.
"Holy shit..." his voice echoed in the cellar. "I am so fucking done!"
"My body is literally genetically modified!!"
"And it still cost me two hundred Imperial Coins to respawn!! Two hundred!!!"
Beside him, [Let the Galaxy Burn] and [Slaanesh Lemme Pilot You Real Hard] sat up at almost the exact same time.
The expressions on their faces were absolutely priceless... A chaotic mix of rage, total confusion, and the incredibly frustrating feeling of getting completely screwed over.
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse] crawled up from another corner, his face livid.
"My Imperial Coins..."
[Let the Galaxy Burn] opened his System panel with trembling hands. "I spent nineteen days saving up three thousand three hundred Imperial Coins."
"I dropped a thousand coins kissing Lucius's ass, respawning drained another two hundred, and my entire loadout cost me eleven hundred. Now I've only got a thousand left... Fuck, there goes my first death!"
"I've got it worse." [Destruction is the End] gritted his teeth. "I just traded for a high-end chainsword and tossed it in my inventory. I didn't even get to use it yet."
"This trash game completely wipes your inventory the second you die. That was two thousand eight hundred Imperial Coins!"
[Slaanesh Lemme Pilot You Real Hard] silently glanced at his balance, then exploded, "It cost me three hundred to respawn..."
"???" The other two turned to look at him simultaneously.
"To get on Lucius's good side, I bought him three bottles of premium Chemos wine from the System shop. Five hundred and seventy coins a pop. That's a total of sixteen hundred and ten coins in pure bribes..."
"And then Lucius casually takes my head off with one swing. Three hundred to respawn, plus the bribes, plus my gear... Three thousand nine hundred and ten coins down the drain."
"Holy shit, you actually do have it worse." [Destruction is the End]'s gloating tone had barely left his mouth before [Let the Galaxy Burn] smacked him on the back of the head.
"What the hell are you laughing at! All four of us died!"
The three of them spent three solid minutes cursing in the dark, unloading every single swear word in their vocabulary.
"No, I just don't get it." [Let the Galaxy Burn] panted heavily. "Lucius embarrasses himself, and somehow that's our fault?"
"We didn't even say anything!"
"We were literally just standing there watching the drama unfold, and he turns around and executes us??"
"Is this your first day meeting Lucius?" [Destruction is the End] sneered. "The guy grew up in aristocratic circles. In his bones, he thinks mortal lives are completely worthless."
"To him, we're no different than rocks on the side of the road."
"If he wants to chop us up, he just does it and slaps together some excuse about us dying heroically in a Laeran ambush."
"That's all it takes..."
"I bet we're not even going to see a dime of that death pension..."
"Oh wait, right as my screen was fading to black, I actually heard him order them to pay out double pensions. But are we actually gonna get that?"
"Get it my ass." [Let the Galaxy Burn] grew even more furious. "We're dead heroes, and we don't have any family registered in the system."
"How the hell are a bunch of corpses supposed to collect a pension?"
Another string of curses echoed through the cellar.
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse] had been dead silent this whole time. He sat in the corner, his eyes glued to a specific number on his System UI...
[Current Imperial Coin Balance: 2317].
Two thousand three hundred and seventeen Imperial Coins. That was his entire net worth after nineteen days of grinding.
His real name was Jason. In the real world, he was a fresh college grad who had sent out over three hundred resumes and interviewed at fifty-plus companies, only to get rejected or stumble into scam jobs.
Last month, he bought into the online hype about a massive gold bull market.
He convinced his mom to sell their house, threw in their remaining 1.5 million in savings, and went all-in. The market crashed the second he bought in, locking his funds and wiping out his portfolio until he only had eighty thousand left.
His mom didn't scold him. She just said with red eyes, "It's okay, we'll just save up again."
He raged online, calling out the influencers who hyped up the gold surge every day, but he didn't get a shred of sympathy from the internet.
The commenters just relentlessly spammed memes under his posts.
"When the market's up: 'I'm a college student, the Wolf of Wall Street!' When you get liquidated: 'I'm just a student, give me my money back!'"
From that moment on, Jason felt like an absolute failure.
He buried himself in gaming, diving into this game to escape reality. He picked Chaos because it represented total freedom.
Kill whoever you want, go crazy whenever you want, no rules, no red tape.
He thought he could finally scrape together a little bit of significance here.
But what was the result?
He got his head chopped off by Lucius like a chicken.
He had spent nineteen days hoarding Imperial Coins just to buy a decent loadout and make a name for himself, and now he was down to 2,317.
Why did it always have to be like this?
"Fuck," he muttered.
"What was that?" [Destruction is the End] looked over.
"I said..." [The Emperor is Just a Corpse] raised his head, something violent churning in his eyes. "I'm not swallowing this bullshit."
Then [The Emperor is Just a Corpse] started screaming out loud:
"Lucius, that son of a bitch! He embarrasses himself, and somehow that's our problem?!"
"That [Paul Dawn] guy disrespects him, and instead of swinging at him, he takes it out on us?!"
"Motherfucker thinks that just because he killed us, word won't get out?!"
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse] gritted his teeth:
"Once I get my stats up, I'm gonna slaughter Lucius to get my payback! Not just once—ten times! I'll hack him to pieces until he begs for mercy!"
[Slaanesh Lemme Pilot You Real Hard] spoke up faintly, "Bro, you've got guts."
"Anyone who actually manages to kill Lucius usually ends up becoming Lucius..."
"Aren't you afraid of Slaanesh's curse?"
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse]: "Afraid my ass!"
"I literally picked the Chaos faction for freedom, you think I'm gonna let the Ruinous Powers dictate my life?"
"If it has a health bar, I'll chop up Slaanesh too! I can just respawn anyway!"
The more he spoke, the more agitated he got, eventually leaping to his feet:
"Damn it, I take enough shit in the real world!"
"My boss at my internship strings me along with empty promises every day. I tried trading futures just to make a quick buck and ended up bankrupting my family..."
"I'm playing a fucking video game! Why should I give a shit about the rules here?!"
Before he even finished speaking, he ripped open the System shop, his fingers tapping frantically.
A flash of white light illuminated the room, and an absurdly oversized M40 Rocket Launcher materialized in his hands. Its pitch-black barrel gleamed coldly in the dim cellar.
"Fuck this! If I don't blast Lucius in the face today, I'm uninstalling!"
[Let the Galaxy Burn] and [Destruction is the End]'s faces instantly drained of color.
"Bro! Calm down! You think you can one-shot Lucius with a rocket?!"
"He's the Captain of the Emperor's Children 13th Company!"
"The future Champion of Slaanesh!"
"If you shoot a rocket at him right now, you won't even scratch the paint on his power armor!"
[Slaanesh Lemme Pilot You Real Hard] also frantically tried to talk him down, "We're in the same faction, he's gonna turn traitor and become Slaanesh's Chosen eventually anyway! Why bother..."
"Bro, I know you're pissed, but with our current stats, going after Lucius is just feeding."
"Just wait until we level up..."
"Wait until later?" [The Emperor is Just a Corpse] cut him off. "How long is it gonna take to level up?"
"A month? Two months?"
"By then, Fulgrim will have already fallen to Chaos, and who knows where Lucius will be! How are we supposed to fight him then?"
"So what's your plan?" [Let the Galaxy Burn] asked back.
"Bro, you aren't actually thinking about..." [Destruction is the End]'s voice trembled slightly, "...going to find Lucius, are you?"
"Yep."
"Are you completely out of your mind??"
"That guy is very powerful, second only to the Primarchs!"
"If you actually manage to blow him up with a rocket, I'll eat my own shoe, alright??"
"You can eat whatever you want, by the pound."
"Even if it doesn't kill him, it's gonna ruin his day."
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse] hoisted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and headed for the cellar door.
"I get enough shit in the real world. I'm not gonna take this crap in a video game too."
"Who the hell does Lucius think he is?"
[Slaanesh Lemme Pilot You Real Hard] quickly stepped in front of him. "Bro! Don't do anything stupid! We're a team..."
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse] stopped in his tracks.
He turned around, looking at his three unlucky comrades, and suddenly let out a bizarre, twisted smile.
That smile sent chills down their spines.
"You're trying to stop me?"
He slowly leveled the rocket launcher, aiming the massive black barrel straight at their chests.
"You know..." his voice was terrifyingly light, "I haven't killed any players from my own faction yet."
"I wonder if I get an Imperial Coin bounty for blowing you guys up?"
The three of them instantly froze.
"Holy shit! Bro, chill!"
[Destruction is the End] frantically waved his hands. "We didn't say we were stopping you! We just..."
"Just what?"
"Just..." [Let the Galaxy Burn]'s brain was operating at terminal velocity, "...just thought it'd be too lonely going by yourself! We'll come with you! Yeah! We're coming with you!"
[Slaanesh Lemme Pilot You Real Hard] nodded violently. "Yeah, exactly! Ride or die! Ride or die!"
"We're brothers in arms! We died together at Lucius's hands! We have to get our revenge together!"
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse] stared at them, the corners of his mouth curling even higher.
"Too late."
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse]'s finger squeezed the trigger.
BOOM!!!
The rocket detonated inside the cramped cellar, a tidal wave of fire swallowing everything.
System notifications popped up in front of [The Emperor is Just a Corpse]'s eyes:
[You have killed Chaos Faction player "Destruction is the End". Merit Points -100]
[You have killed Chaos Faction player "Let the Galaxy Burn". Merit Points -100]
[You have killed Chaos Faction player "Slaanesh Lemme Pilot You Real Hard". Merit Points -100]
[Current Merit Points: 8634]
[The Emperor is Just a Corpse] crawled out of the half-collapsed cellar, covered in soot and his own blood.
The blast radius had caught him too, but he survived.
He paused for a second before bursting into even louder laughter. "Is that all the Merit Points they deduct?!"
"I thought the penalty was going to be way worse!"
"Hahahaha!!"
"Now THIS is a fucking video game!!"
"I'll kill whoever the hell I want!!"
"This feels amazing!!!"
He hoisted the rocket launcher and staggered off in the direction of the Emperor's Children's encampment.
"Lucius... you ready for this?"
--
Next Bonus chapter at 700 Powerstones.
Wanna read ahead right now?! Join Patreon.com/AHumanMadeMOFO to read 20+ chapters ahead for the price of a single happy meal and support me if you wish.