Chapter 155: [155] : The Malware Swarm (1)
Declan adjusted the collar of his black Predator’s Coat. He started walking toward the exit of the server room.
He did not care about the corporate guards. They were just low-level trash. He had his Emperor-grade loot and he was ready to head back to the Iron Bastion.
"Stop right there!" Cipher shrieked.
The corporate celebrity stumbled away from the crushed server rack. He was holding his ribs. His pristine gold armor was heavily dented and his perfectly styled hair was a complete mess. He pointed a shaking finger at Declan.
"You give that back!" Cipher yelled with his voice cracking. "That was my kill! Proud Sword Megacorp paid for this vault run! You hand over that Emperor-grade rifle right now or I will have you permanently banned from the server!"
Declan did not stop walking. He did not even look at the screaming streamer.
"You didn’t kill it." Declan stated flatly. "You got swatted like a bug. I killed it. I keep the loot. That is how the game works."
Cipher’s face turned violently red. He looked around wildly and saw the three floating camera drones still recording everything.
He realized that millions of viewers were currently watching him beg a random player in a trench coat for his own sponsored loot.
The humiliation was absolute!
"Shoot him!" Cipher ordered his hundred guards. "Light him up! He’s just a solo player! He can’t block all of us!"
The elite guards hesitated. They looked at Declan. They remembered how he had completely bypassed their frontline just by blinking. They remembered the localized black hole that had just crushed a Level 100 boss into nothingness.
Nobody raised their rifles. Nobody wanted to get deleted.
"I said shoot him!" Cipher roared with spit flying from his mouth.
"They aren’t going to shoot." Declan said smoothly. He finally stopped walking. He turned around and looked at the angry celebrity.
"They get paid to be security. They don’t get paid to commit suicide against an Abyssal Sovereign."
Declan looked up at one of the hovering camera drones. He walked right up to the lens and gave the camera a slow highly disrespectful smile.
"Are your viewers enjoying the floor?" Declan asked the drone. "Because that is where their sponsored hero just spent the entire boss fight."
The chat log on the side of the drone’s interface instantly exploded. Thousands of messages scrolled by so fast they blurred together. Half the viewers were laughing at Cipher. The other half were asking who the terrifying guy in the black coat was.
Cipher completely lost his mind. His fragile ego shattered into a million pieces.
"You think you are funny?!" Cipher screamed. "You think you can embarrass me on my own stream? I am going to make you wish you never bought a dive pod!"
Cipher did not pull out his heavy energy cannon. He knew normal weapons would not work against whatever hacked defense stats this guy was running. He needed something that bypassed the game’s standard physics engine.
He swiped his hand frantically across his system interface. He opened a hidden password-protected folder in his digital inventory.
He pulled out a small jagged black data drive. It did not glow with the usual blue or gold light of standard gear. It leaked a sick oily black smoke that smelled like burning plastic.
"You want to play dirty?" Cipher laughed. It was a manic desperate sound. "Let’s see your hacked stats survive a deep-server wipe!"
Cipher crushed the black data drive in his hand.
A glaring bright red system warning instantly popped up in the center of the room. It wasn’t just visible to Declan. Every single player in the vault saw it.
[CRITICAL WARNING]
[Unauthorized Code Detected.]
[Malware Class: Nanite Black-Code Swarm]
[Threat Level: Fatal]
"A malware swarm?" Declan raised an eyebrow.
The black smoke pouring from Cipher’s hand did not just fade into the air. It rapidly expanded. In a matter of seconds, the smoke resolved into millions of microscopic incredibly aggressive digital insects.
They did not buzz like normal bugs. They emitted a high-pitched metallic shrieking sound that physically hurt the ears.
The swarm moved like a massive swirling cloud of black ink. Wherever the nanites touched the environment, the physical reality of the server room simply ceased to exist.
They chewed through the pristine white floor tiles. They instantly rusted and dissolved the heavy metal server racks.
They were not dealing damage. They were aggressively un-rendering the game’s code.
The hundred corporate guards did not wait for orders. The moment they saw the floor dissolving into empty space, they completely panicked.
They dropped their plasma rifles, turned around, and desperately bolted for the exit.
"Run! It’s a wipe virus!" A heavy tank screamed as he pushed his own teammates out of the way.
Cipher stood safely behind a localized green safe-zone bubble generated by the malware’s core code. He pointed at Declan.
"Eat him alive!" Cipher shrieked.
The massive cloud of black nanites surged forward like a tidal wave. They crossed the room instantly and aimed directly for Declan’s chest.
Declan did not run. He did not try to use Void Blink to teleport away. He knew how targeting malware worked.
If he blinked, the swarm would just track his residual spatial data and follow him right back to the Iron Bastion. He couldn’t bring a server-eating virus back to his city.
He had to deal with it here.
The black cloud hit him.
The nanites slammed into the thick dark leather of his +10 Predator’s Coat. The fifty points of absolute flat defense did not register the attack.
The bugs were not dealing kinetic or magical damage. They were trying to eat the item’s digital tag.
Declan felt a sharp intense burning sensation across his chest and arms.
[Warning: Armor degradation in progress. Item deletion imminent.]
"You can’t block it!" Cipher laughed hysterically from across the room. "Those nanites bypass all defense stats! They cause severe real bio-feedback!"
"They are going to eat your avatar and then they are going to fry your actual nervous system!"
Declan gritted his teeth. The pain was completely real. The malware was actively trying to force a catastrophic disconnect on his body.
He looked at the swirling black cloud entirely consuming his vision.
"You guys really love your little bugs." Declan muttered.
