Declan scanned the logs rapidly. He expected to see messages from Director Sterling of Apex Paradigm or orders from the CEO of Proud Sword Megacorp.
Instead, he saw something entirely different.
[Sender: The Architect] 鈫� [Message: Assess the structural integrity of Sector 7. Do not engage the anomaly. Record the environmental data and return. We need to verify if his code is bleeding into our baseline.]
Declan frowned. "The Architect?"
He searched the logs for the corporate CEOs and the results came back instantly.
[Status of Director Sterling: Account Terminated.] 鈫� [Status of CEO Grant: Account Terminated.] 鈫� [Sector 1 Guild Leadership: Unified under Arthur Cross.]
Declan blinked. The billionaire suits were gone. They weren’t in charge anymore.
Someone else had completely taken over the most heavily fortified and pay-to-win sector on the entire planet. And this guy had done it overnight.
Declan looked down at the shaking scout in his grip.
"Thanks for the update," Declan said smoothly.
He let go.
The Level 75 player screamed as he plummeted down toward the ruined streets of Sector 7.
A second later a small blue flash of light appeared on the ground far below.
[Target Slayed: Level 75 Corporate Scout.] 鈫� [EXP Gained: +500,000.] 鈫� [Current Level: 85 (Progress: 12%).]
Declan stood balancing perfectly on the edge of the hovering open-topped stealth ship.
He ignored the experience points. He was far more interested in the new name sitting in his system logs.
"Arthur Cross," Declan muttered as the wind whipped his coat around him. "Sounds like I have a new neighbor."
Declan dropped down into the pilot’s seat of the ruined stealth ship.
The wind was howling loudly through the torn canopy but he didn’t care. He comfortably crossed his legs and looked at the glowing control panel in front of him.
He didn’t bother looking for the steering controls. He just wanted the radio.
He pulled the dead scout’s cracked helmet from his digital inventory and placed it on the dashboard.
He slammed his fist down onto the communication module built into the side of it to forcefully route the audio feed through his own Sovereign-tier interface.
"System," Declan commanded. "Open a direct line to the sender marked ’The Architect’. Use the highest priority channel and override their ’Do Not Disturb’ settings."
The blue lights on the dashboard flickered and a low electronic hum filled the tiny cabin of the ship.
Declan leaned back and waited. He fully expected a lot of yelling or threats about server wipes and orbital lasers.
That was how the elites in Sector 1 always communicated.
A click sounded over the speakers and the line connected.
"I was wondering when you would call Player V," a voice echoed through the comms.
Declan raised an eyebrow. The voice was completely calm.
It didn’t have the synthetic and arrogant edge of a corporate boss. It sounded smooth and polite like a college professor sitting in a quiet library.
"You sent a spy to my house," Declan replied with his tone flat. "I am just returning the favor. Your scout is currently a pile of blue pixels on my pavement."
"A regrettable loss of data but an expected outcome," Arthur Cross replied.
He didn’t sound angry at all. He just sounded mildly disappointed.
"I needed to confirm the stability of your sector. You have caused quite a massive fluctuation in the game’s physics engine over the last forty-eight hours."
Declan smirked. "I like to stay busy. I see you’ve been busy too. What happened to Sterling and the rest of the board of directors?"
"They were inefficient," Arthur said simply. "They believed they could purchase safety with real-world currency."
"They failed to understand that the Primordial Grid does not respect bank accounts. It only respects the code."
"I simply removed the inefficient variables and unified the sector under a more stable baseline."
Declan’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t like the sound of that. This guy didn’t talk like a gamer. He talked like a developer!
"So you are the new king of Sector 1," Declan noted.
"Are you going to drop another fake storm on my city or are we going to skip to the part where I come over there and break your servers?"
Arthur let out a soft and polite chuckle. "Neither. Conflict generates unnecessary chaos and chaos leads to system crashes."
"I have no desire to fight you Player V. I want to offer you a permanent solution."
"I don’t do corporate mergers," Declan stated firmly.
"I am not offering a merger," Arthur stated back. "I am offering a parley."
"A quiet conversation between the only two players on this planet who actually understand what is happening to our world."
"I have generated a neutral un-rendered server void perfectly situated between our two borders. Come alone and let us talk."
A golden system prompt suddenly flashed directly in front of Declan’s face.
[Quest Generated: The Warlord and The Architect.] 鈫� [Objective: Attend the Parley at the designated coordinates.] 鈫� [Reward: Unknown.]
Declan stared at the prompt. A custom quest generated by a player?
That was impossible. Unless the player had root access!
"I will be waiting," Arthur said quietly before the comms link clicked and went dead.
Declan sat in the quiet ship for a moment. He tapped his earpiece and switched over to his private guild channel.
"Nova," Declan called out.
"I am here boss," the elite hacker’s voice buzzed in his ear. "I am currently cataloging the raw iron drops from the drone sweeps. What do you need?"
"I need you to run a deep web search on a player name. Arthur Cross. He goes by The Architect."
There was a brief pause on the line. Then Declan heard the rapid and frantic tapping of holographic keys.
"Arthur Cross..." Nova muttered as her voice dropped into a highly focused tone.
"Wait. That name isn’t in the standard corporate registries. He isn’t a CEO and he isn’t a sponsored player. Pulling his raw data file now."
A sharp gasp echoed over the radio.
"Declan," Nova’s voice suddenly trembled with genuine fear. "Do not go near this guy! He is not a normal player!"
"Give me the stats hacker."
"He doesn’t have normal stats!" Nova practically yelled. "He possesses an anomaly tag just like you! He is an Earth player who awakened an SSS-Rank Talent!"
Declan sat up straight as his dark eyes flared with sudden intense interest.
"Another SSS-Rank?"
"Yes! The only other one in the entire game!" Nova read the screen frantically. "It is called Absolute Equilibrium."
"Declan his talent allows him to forcefully lock the physics engine into a stagnant state!"
"He can enforce strict and unyielding baseline rules on reality. He can completely turn off item multipliers and skill mutations!"
Declan smiled. A slow highly predatory smile spread across his face.
The entire game was built on numbers. Declan’s talent Boundless Enhancement allowed him to push those numbers to infinity.
He broke the rules by making his numbers too big for the system to handle.
But Arthur Cross had a talent that forced the numbers back to zero. He was the literal opposite of Declan. He was a walking ban-hammer!
"He wants to meet for a chat," Declan noted casually.
"It’s a trap!" Nova insisted. "If you walk into his domain he will strip away all of your enhancements! Your halberd will turn back into a Level 1 iron stick!"
"Your coat will just be a piece of cloth! You will be completely defenseless!"
"I am never defenseless Nova," Declan replied smoothly as he cracked his knuckles. "Send me the coordinates."
"Declan you cannot punch a guy who turns off the game’s math!"
"Watch me." Declan tapped the accept button on the golden quest prompt.
He didn’t care if Arthur had an SSS-Rank talent or if Sector 1 was unified.
He was the Warlord of Sector 7 and he was incredibly bored.
A little chat with the only other game-breaking anomaly on the planet sounded like exactly the kind of entertainment he needed.
Declan stood in the middle of his luxurious penthouse back at the Iron Bastion. He had just teleported down from the stealth ship.
He checked his gear quickly. He was wearing his pitch-black Predator’s Coat and his +10 Spiked Striders were laced up tight.
He had the +40 Eclipse Severance halberd sitting securely in his digital inventory.
He tapped his massive Ascendant-tier mana pool.
"System. Abyssal Warp-Gate."
He channeled 500 mana points into the Sovereign skill.