A burst of five white lights shimmered across the square.
Leon Graves and his four teammates reappeared, their figures flickering back into the real world—unmistakably the mark of elimination.
Only a few short minutes had passed since the Secret Realm battle began.
And already, they had lost.
Not a single monster slain. Not a single point earned.
As Leon stared blankly at the bold, glowing red "0 points" hovering beside his name on the leaderboard, shame and disbelief flooded his chest. His expression was pale and stiff, as if he'd just been punched in the gut.
He didn't even want to lift his head.
In his mind, everyone in the stands was laughing at him—mocking him for going in with five people and still losing to just one man. Lucas, that damned Shadow Assassin, had dismantled them like amateurs.
Leon clenched his fists.
How had it ended so quickly?
They didn't even get to fight monsters. They were the first team to fall—and would likely remain at the bottom of the rankings.
Unable to bear the humiliation, Leon and his teammates hurriedly left the square, heads down, practically running.
But in truth, no one was paying attention to them at all.
The spotlight wasn't on the losers.
It was on the one who beat them.
---
Lucas.
From the moment his confrontation with Leon's team began, the main projection screen hovering above the plaza had switched to display their fight.
Everyone had seen it.
Five attackers. One target.
And then—instant defeat.
The footage showed Lucas moving with surgical precision—flashing across the battlefield, eliminating three of them before the rest could even react. It had been a massacre, not a battle.
The audience was stunned.
Lucas hadn't begged, hadn't panicked, hadn't even looked pressed.
His movements were confident, calculated, and utterly ruthless. He'd made it look easy.
Now the plaza buzzed with discussion.
"Did you see that damage output?"
"How did he teleport that far? That wasn't a standard assassin blink."
"Was that a Talent Skill? It's got to be."
Everyone was speculating—about Lucas's gear, his class build, and above all, his sheer power.
---
Up in the observation tower, Jade Walker leaned forward with interest, her sharp eyes fixated on the screen. Lucas's projection had just been shifted back to a smaller window, but the footage still played for a few more seconds.
"Well, now," she muttered with a smile. "That damage was no joke. Two teleports—first one wasn't even a backstab. He's got something unique in his Awakening."
At her side, Alexis Lane was already typing away, her fingers moving at high speed across the keys of her sleek laptop.
"I've updated his profile," she said calmly. "Given that no one from Leon's team could survive even one strike, I suspect his first attack is enhanced by a passive Talent Skill. An initial burst amplifier, maybe."
"Hmm." Jade nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense. The way those enemies vanished…"
"...they didn't even get a chance to use potions or defense skills," Alexis finished. "That kind of explosive burst is rare."
She frowned slightly.
"It's a shame we couldn't see the actual damage values. The live screen projection lacks those kinds of fine details."
"I'll talk to the faculty team later," Jade promised. "Maybe we can get raw logs afterward."
"But based on what we've seen," Alexis added, "I've upgraded his assessment. I recommend we move him into high-priority recruitment status."
Jade smirked. "No complaints here. I've always had a soft spot for mysterious assassins."
She crossed her arms. "Shadow Assassins... once they hit Level 50, they can learn Combat Invisibility—letting them vanish mid-fight. If Lucas is already this lethal now..."
"He'll be a nightmare in close-quarters PvP," Alexis agreed.
"In the right hands, a Shadow Assassin can eliminate half a raid team before anyone realizes what's happening."
"But I'm still curious..." Jade said, narrowing her eyes.
"What?" Alexis asked without looking up.
"His weapon."
Jade gestured to the slow-motion clip replaying on her own interface. "The daggers. Did you recognize them?"
Alexis paused, then shook her head. "Not listed in any of the databases. Not in the official item catalog. Not even in the rare-drop registers."
"So..." Jade's lips curled. "We've got ourselves a guy with unregistered weapons, a highly aggressive teleport, and damage output rivaling top seniors."
Alexis typed a few notes and concluded, "I've moved him to Tier-2 Elite Candidate."
"Tier-2?" Jade raised an eyebrow.
"He's not quite at the SS Shield Knight's level, but yes. Second-highest potential ranking."
"Not bad for a lone wolf."
---
Meanwhile, other guild leaders had also taken notice.
Even Logan Barrett, president of the prestigious Shengshi Guild, was eyeing Lucas's profile with deepening interest.
He muttered to his vice president, "Mark that one. We'll watch his progression through the competition."
Still, they all agreed: this was just the beginning.
Even with Lucas's explosive first victory, the Secret Realm Battle had only just started. There were still three hours of action left—and the champion had not yet been decided.
---
Back inside the Secret Realm…
Lucas trudged across the jagged terrain, now far from his previous ambush site.
He'd left Leon's team behind without a second glance.
"First the humans, now for the beasts," he muttered.
Suddenly, something flew at him.
A rock.
It hit the ground next to him and shattered.
Lucas looked up.
Perched on a crooked tree branch above him was a strange monkey, glowing faintly. It bared its teeth and hurled another stone.
Lucas narrowed his eyes.
> Level 21: Rock-Throwing Tree Monkey
"Cute," he muttered. "But rude."
He activated Shadowstep, blinked up the tree—and stabbed the monkey right in the back.
The creature screeched once—then dissolved into particles of white light.
Instant kill.
"Dumb monkey," Lucas muttered. "Hope you regret your life choices in the afterlife."
But when he checked his experience bar, his eyebrows raised.
"Whoa. That gave me more EXP than a Level 30 wild mob."
The monkey had been only Level 21, yet the experience gain was incredibly high.
"Interesting... Is EXP in the Secret Realm scaled up?"
Now Lucas was intrigued.
If low-level monsters here gave triple the standard experience, then farming would be even more valuable than originally thought.
He sprinted forward, now actively hunting more wild monsters.
And soon, he found them.
A small group of Shadow Wolves, Level 24, prowled near a shallow ravine.
Lucas dropped into stealth, slipped behind the lead wolf, and cleared the entire pack in under 15 seconds.
Sure enough—the EXP was massive.
"Definitely scaled," he muttered. "This whole realm's designed to speed up leveling."
It also explained why Kyoto University guarded access to the Secret Realm so tightly. If experience gains here were this good, they couldn't just let any random player wander in.
He continued moving inward.
The further he went, the more monsters appeared—and the higher their levels climbed.
Some hit Level 30.
Then 35.
And Lucas killed them all.
Whether for points or experience, it didn't matter—he was making steady progress on both fronts.
His name on the leaderboard climbed from outside the top 200... to inside the top 150... then just above 100.
If not for the delay caused by Leon's team ambushing him near the outskirts, he'd already be near the top.
But Lucas wasn't in a rush.
He wasn't here just for the ranking.
He wanted to test his limits.
And he was just getting started.
---
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