Chapter 169: [169] : The Deep-Web Node, Million-Point Lunch
Declan walked up the grand staircase of the central keep leaving the busy noisy courtyard of the Iron Bastion far behind him.
His heavy Spiked Striders made absolutely no sound on the polished dark wood floors. The Frictionless Movement trait on his boots was meant for sliding out of the way of massive boss attacks. But it was also incredibly convenient for just walking around his own house without making a racket.
He reached the top floor and pushed open the heavy double doors to his Sovereign-tier penthouse.
The room was exactly as he had left it. It was a massive sprawling space with high vaulted ceilings and thick velvet curtains covering the reinforced windows. The air inside smelled completely clean, a sharp contrast to the toxic smog-choked rain of Sector 7 outside his city walls.
But the room wasn’t empty.
Aegis was standing perfectly still next to the large digital refrigerator in the corner of the room.
The Level 80 System Defense Entity looked exactly like a high-tech mannequin made of matte-black metal. She did not breathe, but glowing purple energy lines pulsed steadily along her sleek chassis. The lights perfectly mimicked a human circulatory system, pumping raw Abyssal mana through her mechanical veins.
"Welcome back, Boss," Aegis said.
Her voice was smooth and synthetic and carried a faint trace of robotic smugness. She was the city’s main defense entity, and Declan had forcefully given her a physical body using the Sovereign Core.
"The automated assembly line is operating at five thousand percent efficiency," Aegis reported immediately. "The Abyssal Scavenger Drones have successfully breached the borders of Sector 6. They are currently strip-mining the ruined corporate bases as requested."
"Good," Declan said.
He walked over to the massive leather couch in the center of the room and collapsed onto it. He stretched his long legs out and let out a heavy sigh.
"Turn off the system notification chimes for the drone drops," Declan ordered while rubbing his eyes. "They are going off every two seconds and it is giving me a headache."
"Understood," Aegis replied. Her glowing blue optical lenses flashed once.
Instantly, the constant rapid-fire ringing in Declan’s head stopped. The game engine stopped trying to alert him for every single piece of loot his automated army picked up.
The notifications didn’t stop entirely though. They just silently scrolled down the bottom left corner of his vision in a neat organized list.
[System Notice]
↳ Abyssal Drones secured 500 lbs of Void-Ore.
↳ Abyssal Drones secured 12,000 Origin Points.
↳ Abyssal Drones salvaged 50 Forged-tier weapons.
↳ Abyssal Drones secured 8,500 Origin Points.
It was a truly beautiful sight. Declan just watched the text scroll by. He was making millions of points a minute without lifting a single finger!
Sector 6 was completely overrun by high-level Abyssal monsters from the Server Wipe Protocol. It was a literal death trap for any normal player.
But the robotic spiders Bram had built didn’t care. They were Level 60 machines with a hive-mind link. They just marched into the toxic wasteland, completely ignored the monster aggro, and grabbed the abandoned corporate loot.
"I am hungry," Declan announced. He leaned his head back against the soft leather couch. "What does a Sovereign-tier fridge actually make?"
Aegis turned to the massive appliance. She placed her cold metallic hand on the glowing interface panel on the door.
"The unit converts raw mana crystals into optimal biological sustenance," Aegis explained smoothly. "It bypasses the standard cooking mechanics of the game engine entirely. It simply renders the highest quality food available in the database."
The heavy metal door of the fridge hissed open.
A thick cloud of cold white steam rolled out onto the polished wood floor.
Aegis reached inside and pulled out a silver tray. She walked over to the small glass table in front of Declan and set it down quietly.
Sitting on the tray was a massive perfectly cooked steak.
It was sizzling softly. It was covered in a rich dark sauce and accompanied by a side of roasted potatoes that looked entirely too real for a digital dimension. The smell of actual high-quality food filled the penthouse immediately.
Declan stared at the food.
For five years in the debtor’s prison, he had eaten gray tasteless nutrient paste. For the last few days in the Primordial Grid, he had eaten burnt rat meat on a stick just to keep his stamina bar from zeroing out.
He didn’t wait for Aegis to hand him silverware. He didn’t care about table manners.
He just reached out, grabbed the massive steak with his bare hand, and took a huge bite.
It was incredible! It tasted exactly like actual real-world beef. The heavy calories hit his stomach, and his ridiculously dense Abyssal Leviathan muscles practically cheered. His health and stamina bars locked at absolute maximum capacity.
"This is the best item I have ever bought," Declan said with his mouth full of food. "Bram’s automated turrets are great, but this fridge is the real MVP of the city."
"I am glad your nutritional requirements are met, Boss," Aegis said smoothly. She stood at perfect attention with her hands clasped firmly behind her back.
Just as Declan took another huge bite of the steak, the heavy wooden doors of the penthouse swung open.
Sloane and Nova walked into the room.
The Quartermaster looked like she was running on pure caffeine and sheer panic. Sloane had her glowing digital clipboard in one hand and a pen tucked behind her ear. Her white medical tunic was still stained with digital ash from the earlier battles.
Nova walked right behind her.
Nova was back in her pristine icy-blue professional persona. She had changed into a brand-new silver tactical suit. She was completely hiding the fact that she had almost died from a server-wiping plasma beam just a few hours ago.
"Boss, we have a situation," Sloane said loudly. She walked right up to the glass table and stopped.
She looked down at the steak in Declan’s hand. She blinked twice.
"Is that real meat?" Sloane asked, her voice cracking slightly. "Where did you get a cow? There are no cows in this apocalypse!"
"Mana," Declan replied simply chewing his food. "What is the situation?"
Nova stepped forward. She didn’t look at the food. She tapped her sleek wrist interface. A glowing blue screen popped up in the air directly between them.
"It is an opportunity," Nova corrected smoothly. "When we were in the vault, you grabbed a massive stack of high-tier data drives from the developer stash. I have been decrypting them while you were setting up the drone factory."
"Find anything good?" Declan asked. He wiped his face with the back of his hand and tossed the rest of the steak back onto the silver tray.
"More than good," Nova said. Her icy blue eyes reflected the rapidly scrolling green code on her holographic screen. "They did not just hide weapons and armor in these vaults. They hid administrative control hubs. I found the exact location of the Deep-Web Admin Node."
Declan raised an eyebrow. He leaned forward. "What does it do?"
"It is the Audio-Visual Hub," Nova explained. "It is the primary rendering engine for the entire western hemisphere of the server. It controls exactly how sound and light operate in the Grid. It is a fundamental piece of the physics engine."
"If it controls the server, why didn’t the developers use it to stop me?" Declan asked. "Why try to shoot me with a satellite when they could just turn off my lights?"
"Because they are locked out of their own system," Nova said. A rare genuine smirk crossed her pale face. "When you pulled the Sanctum Core into the real world and severed the Sector 7 anchor, it caused a massive chain reaction across the entire network."
Nova swiped her hand. She pulled up a highly detailed map of the merged world.
"The Abyssal monsters from Sector 6 didn’t just flood the physical streets," Nova continued. "They flooded the background code of the game."
The map showed a massive underground bunker located entirely off the standard grid map. It was surrounded by flashing red warning icons.
"The Abyssal entities are currently trying to aggressively delete the heavy doors to the Admin Node," Nova explained pointing at the red icons. "The system’s Sovereign-grade defenses are completely overwhelmed trying to fight off the corruption. That means the digital firewalls are currently down."
Declan stopped moving. He stared at the map.
"The firewalls are down," Declan repeated slowly. "Meaning the vault is open."
"For a very short time," Nova nodded firmly. "We have exactly a ten-hour window before the system either purges the monsters, or the monsters delete the node entirely. If we get inside before that timer runs out, we have direct access to developer-tier loot that makes that plasma sniper rifle look like a plastic toy."
Declan smiled. It was a cold highly motivated smile.
He didn’t need to hear anything else. Developer-tier loot sitting in a wide-open vault. It was basically a giant neon sign begging him to come rob the place blind!
"Sloane," Declan stood up from the leather couch. "Keep the city running. Make sure Jax and the hunting parties don’t slack off. I want that Origin Point counter hitting a hundred million by tomorrow morning."
"You got it, boss," Sloane sighed heavily. She was already tapping on her clipboard to organize the next shift of workers. "Try not to blow up another city block while you’re out."
Declan ignored her completely. He looked at Nova. "Send me the coordinates to my neural link. We are going right now."
"I am coming with you?" Nova asked. She blinked in genuine surprise.
"You are the hacker," Declan pointed out like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I hit things with a big stick. If there is a highly encrypted computer in there that needs pressing, you press it."
Nova didn’t argue. She knew how he operated by now. She just tapped her wrist and forwarded the encrypted location data directly to his Warlord interface.
Declan accepted the system ping. He tapped into the massive stamina pool provided by his Level 70 stats.
"System," Declan commanded quietly. "Activate Spatial Anchor. Target coordinates: Deep-Web Admin Node."
He didn’t bother using the heavy Abyssal Rover for this trip. He just reached out, grabbed the thick collar of Nova’s silver tactical suit, and pulled her close to him.
The dark silver Mythic ring on his index finger flared with a blinding black energy.
A massive cylinder of pure suffocating void crashed down from the ceiling. It swallowed them both completely. The luxurious penthouse, the smell of cooked steak, and the quiet humming of Aegis all vanished in a fraction of a millisecond.
They were going back into the dark.
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