The Grid was burning again.
[Compression Phase Eight: 93 % Complete]
[Safe Zone Radius: 2 Kilometers]
[Remaining Participants: 69]
Lightning carved the artificial sky as fragments of terrain folded inward. Every few minutes, another piece of the world disappeared into code dust.
Leice moved through the haze like he had done this a thousand times. His HUD flickered with data—routes, energy readings, and player signatures converging ahead.
Behind him, Aria adjusted the strap of her staff, Zack followed with a determined frown.
"We can't keep running forever," Zack said.
"We're not," Leice replied. "We're hunting."
He opened the system store.
[Shop Access: Lewd Utility Branch / Combat Subsidiary]
[DP Available: ∞]
[Item Purchased: Vital Booster x 3]
[Item Purchased: Stim Core Patch x 2]
[DP Spent: 0]
Small capsules materialised, each glowing faintly. Leice tossed two to his companions.
"Drink. It'll sharpen reflexes."
Zack downed his immediately. Aria hesitated, then followed.
Seconds later, she paused, brow furrowing. Heat flushed her cheeks; her breathing quickened.
"Leice… this feels—odd."
He glanced back, expression unreadable. Of all the potions in the shop…
"Wrong dosage," he said quietly. "Focus on your heartbeat. It'll pass."
She nodded, trying to steady herself, fingers tightening around her staff.
Zack blinked, oblivious. "See? Feels amazing! I could fight for hours!"
Leice only muttered, "You will."
[Enemy Signatures Detected: 17]
[Distance: 300 Meters / Converging]
"Positions," Leice ordered.
Aria raised her hands; a sphere of blue light expanded around them.
Zack drew his blade, voice trembling but ready.
The first enemy team appeared—five players from the Azure Crest, their insignia flashing as they charged.
[Skill Activated: Break Sequence Σ]
[DP Spent: 600]
Breakam One separated into arcs of silver.
Each strike rewrote the air itself; every impact disintegrated code.
The Azure Crest fell before they even reached melee range.
[System Notice: Player Eliminations +5]
[Remaining Participants: 64]
Zack exhaled, awe plain on his face.
"That's… fifteen already since morning."
Aria's eyes followed the shifting light around Leice. The booster made her heartbeat pound, senses sharpened until even his voice carried weight.
"How can anyone stand against that?" she whispered.
Leice ignored the question. He was watching the map shrink again.
——— x——— x——— x——— x———
Elsewhere in the Grid
[Sector West – Compression Boundary]
Serin Vale and the remnants of her team sprinted across cracked terrain.
Behind them, the violet wall of energy crept closer.
"We should've stayed with Grape!" one shouted.
"You stay near a god, you burn," Serin snapped.
But their path crossed another group—two signatures moving fast.
Golden flares. Crimson trails.
"Targets acquired," a cold female voice said.
Kesha Billex dropped from above, blade gleaming.
Yvonne's energy whip followed a split-second later.
Within moments, Serin's pact was gone—consumed by light and fury.
[Remaining Participants: 58]
The two of them even enemy, rival, but sometime can play together and they vanished again
——— x——— x——— x——— x———
NightSun Academy – Observation Deck
The audience roared as the counter fell again. Screens flashed kill tallies; names blinked out one by one.
Alicia Grape stood motionless before the central display.
Leice's icon pulsed brightest—marked with 103 Kills and still rising.
Her aide swallowed.
"Madam… he's surpassed every historical record."
"Records," Alicia murmured, "are for mortals."
She could feel her heartbeat matching the tempo of the numbers, half terror, half pride.
Far away in another chamber, the Billex family watched their daughter's name climb to sixty kills.
"If she meets him," Kesha's father whispered, "who survives?"
No one answered, for now.
"Don't forget the two still have some oath between them", suddenly unrecognized voice spoke out.
Arena – Shifting World
[Remaining Participants: 52]
[Compression Field Radius: 1.5 km]
[Stability: Critical]
The terrain buckled beneath them. Gravity stuttered; shards of frozen data fell like rain.
Leice steadied Aria with a hand on her shoulder.
"Stay grounded."
Her pulse still raced, the booster's warmth refusing to fade.
But when their eyes met, the chaos around them seemed to still for an instant.
[Affinity Alert: Aria Sillena → Leech Code +10 %]
He dismissed the notification.
Not now.
[Skill Activated: Spatial Collapse Protocol]
[DP Spent: 800]
[Effect: Erase Hostile Entities within 150 m radius]
The world screamed—then went silent.
[Player Eliminations +9]
[Remaining Participants: 45]
Observation Deck
The hall shook with the sound of system bells.
Alicia gripped the railing, eyes wide.
"Forty-five left," someone announced.
"Phase Eight complete."
But Alicia wasn't listening.
On the main screen, her son stood alone amid the ruins—calm, silver-eyed, Breakam One floating behind him like a crown of blades.
For the first time, the AI commentators hesitated to speak.
Because everyone watching felt it too:
the world wasn't shrinking around Leice Grape—
it was reshaping itself to fit him.
[Remaining Participants: 45]
[Compression Phase Eight – Complete / Phase Nine Pending Initialization]
The feed cut to static.
Alicia whispered into the silence, half in awe, half in dread:
"He's not playing anymore."