Started with a 10,000x Multiplier in a Game World

Chapter 180: Chapter 180: Arrival of Aria

Dante stepped out of the shadowed alleyway. He left the dilapidated appraisal shop of Clara behind.

The sun was beginning to set over Aethelgardia. It cast long golden shadows across the pristine white marble streets of the upper residential tier.

He didn’t immediately reply to the message of Aria.

He opened his infinite inventory and retrieved the remaining pieces of Celestial-tier gear he had looted from the Heavenly Dragon Commander.

He pulled up the localized appraisal data Clara had successfully decrypted.

He had already equipped the [Evil Dragon Helmet] to secure the absolute immunity to critical hits and the [Dragon’s Insight] passive.

Now, he needed to integrate the rest of the set.

[Item Appraised: Evil Spirit Armor]

[Tier: Celestial]

[Type: Heavy Armor (Chest)]

[Stats: +12,000 Physical Defense, +10,000 Magical Defense.]

[Passive 1 (Spirit Ward): Converts 50% of all incoming magical damage into raw localized mana, completely bypassing standard mana regeneration caps.]

[Passive 2 (Unyielding Core): Grants the user absolute immunity to physical knockback, knockdown, and forced displacement mechanics.]

Dante whistled softly.

The raw defensive numbers were astronomical. They entirely eclipsed the Dark Demon [Carapace of the Void-Devourer] he was currently wearing.

The immunity to knockback was incredibly valuable for a frontline fighter.

It meant he could stand in the absolute center of a localized earthquake of a boss or a massive hurricane spell and not move a single inch.

He swapped the chest pieces.

The dark purple plating dissolved and was instantly replaced by a massive and incredibly intimidating set of heavy plate armor.

The metal was a deep iridescent silver etched with glowing dark blue draconic runes that pulsed softly in the twilight.

He moved to the final piece.

[Item Appraised: Evil Spirit Boots]

[Tier: Celestial]

[Type: Heavy Armor (Feet)]

[Stats: +4,000 Physical Defense, +3,000 Agility.]

[Passive (Phantom Tread): The physical footsteps of the user generate zero localized sound and leave no environmental tracking data. Movement speed is passively increased by 40% when outside of active combat.]

He swapped out his old Silver-tier greaves. The heavy matching silver and blue boots materialized flawlessly over his calves.

Dante pulled up his character sheet to review the final integration of the Celestial-tier set.

[Participant: Dan]

[Level: 72]

[Class: Asura Vanguard (Mythic)]

[HP: 35,500 / 35,500]

His health pool hadn’t just recovered the loss of the [Sun-Forged Cuirass]. It had massively expanded.

The raw localized stat density of wearing a nearly complete Celestial-tier armor set pushed his baseline survivability into mathematically absurd territory.

"Thirty-five thousand health," Dante muttered and dismissed the interface. "I can comfortably tank an Annihilation-Tier ultimate without popping an invulnerability frame."

He rolled his shoulders to get a feel for the new armor.

Despite the massive physical bulk of the [Evil Spirit Armor], it felt completely weightless and perfectly contoured to his digital physiology.

"Alright," Dante said and looked around the empty street. "Let us see what this helmet actually does."

He focused his intent and activated the secondary passive of the [Evil Dragon Helmet].

[Skill Executed: Dragon’s Insight]

The visual transition was immediate and entirely disorienting.

The standard localized field of vision of Dante didn’t just sharpen. It fundamentally shifted onto a completely different spectrum of reality.

The vibrant colors of the city faded slightly and were replaced by a highly detailed overlapping grid of glowing blue and red data streams.

He wasn’t just seeing the physical world anymore. He was seeing the underlying code of the Zenith Protocol.

He looked at a nearby marble wall.

The stone didn’t look solid. The [Dragon’s Insight] highlighted a faint localized structural fracture near the base of the wall glowing with a soft yellow light.

He could see exactly where to strike to collapse the entire building with minimal physical effort.

He looked down the street.

Two heavily armored NPC paladins were marching on their standard patrol route.

Above their heads, the system wasn’t just displaying their level and faction.

Dante could see a localized glowing red reticle hovering directly over their left knee joints, their primary structural weak points.

"True Vision," Dante whispered. He was absolutely stunned by the sheer tactical advantage.

He didn’t just see weaknesses.

As he scanned the environment, a faint pulsing red outline appeared near a sewer grate fifty feet down the alleyway.

It was a localized trap completely invisible to standard perception. It was designed to snare unwary players attempting to explore the underbelly of the city.

If he wore this helmet into a dungeon, stealth ambushes, hidden tripwires, and boss mechanics were completely nullified.

He could see the traps before they triggered. He could see the exact coordinates where an invisible rogue was standing.

He was mathematically impossible to surprise.

Dante disabled the [Dragon’s Insight] and returned his vision to the standard colorful spectrum to avoid sensory overload.

He opened his private message interface to finally reply to the pending message.

[Dan: I am in Aethelgardia. Meet me at the Astral Emporium in the central plaza. Do not talk to anyone wearing a gold and white tabard.]

The response was instantaneous.

[Aria (Little Cutie): Yay! I am on my way! I brought snacks!]

Dante closed the interface and shook his head.

The hyper-cheerful innocent persona of Aria was incredibly convincing, but he knew better.

Nobody casually hands out a [Bloom of Decay] poison as a "thank you" gift without possessing a deeply terrifying localized understanding of lethal mechanics.

He triggered [Meteor Stride] and chained the zero-cooldown teleports to rapidly cross the city and head straight for the commercial district.

He arrived at the massive dark marble building of the Astral Emporium in less than a minute.

The central plaza was significantly quieter than it had been during the morning auction.

The massive crowds had dispersed, and the rival guilds had retreated to lick their financial wounds or desperately grind levels to compensate for their massive losses.

Dante pushed the heavy oak doors open and walked into the main lobby of the Emporium.

The interior was bustling with localized activity.

Sera had hired dozens of NPC clerks to manage the day-to-day transactions of the lower-tier gear. This transformed the empty building into a highly efficient automated commercial hub.

Dante didn’t stop to browse. He took the grand staircase up to the third-floor VIP suite.

The entire anomaly squad was gathered around the large mahogany table.

Sera and Nyx were aggressively organizing a massive localized spreadsheet of their auction profits.

Lila was sitting on the sofa and gently feeding small pieces of digital meat to Zephyr, her new Celestial Griffin pet.

Casanova was loudly recounting his version of the Demon Spirit Land dungeon clear and heavily exaggerating his own contributions.

Mei was busy polishing her massive cast-iron frying pan while Pip the dragon dozed happily on her shoulder.

They all looked up as Dante walked into the room.

"Wow, Boss," Casanova whistled and stared at the gleaming silver and blue Celestial armor.

"You look like a final boss. The gold armor was flashy, but that is genuinely intimidating."

"It gets the job done," Dante said. He unfastened the heavy [Mantle of the Void-Dragon] and draped it over a chair.

"Dante," Sera called out and looked up from her datapad.

"Clara arrived an hour ago. She is already set up in the localized appraisal laboratory in the basement. She is incredibly efficient."

"Did you process the signing bonus?" Dante asked.

"Five million real-world credits wired directly to her account," Sera confirmed smoothly.

"The medical bills of her daughter are completely covered. She was crying so hard I had to give her a localized buff just to stabilize her avatar."

Dante nodded and felt a localized sense of genuine satisfaction.

He had secured the appraiser, and he had actually managed to do something undeniably good in a game that actively encouraged absolute cruelty.

Before they could discuss their next move, the heavy oak door of the VIP suite slowly creaked open.

Everyone in the room turned to look.

Standing in the doorway was a small fragile-looking girl.

She wore a simple unadorned white linen dress that looked like standard beginner gear. Her long brown hair was tied back in a simple braid, and she held a small woven basket in her hands.

She looked absolutely terrified of the massive heavily armed players staring at her.

[ID: Aria]

[Level: 15]

"Um, hello," Aria squeaked and took a very hesitant step into the lavish suite. "Is Mr. Hero here? He told me to come to this building."

"Aria," Dante said and stepped out from behind the mahogany table.

Lila stood up, gripped her Dark Demon staff, and looked incredibly confused. "Dante, who is this? Did you recruit a beginner?"

"She is not a beginner," Dante corrected smoothly.

He didn’t activate his [Dragon’s Insight] to scan her. He didn’t need to. He remembered the Global Leaderboards perfectly.

"Squad," Dante announced and gestured to the small innocent-looking girl clutching her basket.

"Meet Aria. She is currently holding the Rank 2 spot on the Global Hidden Class Leaderboards."

The entire room went dead silent.

Casanova dropped his digital goblet of wine. It shattered on the floor.

The professional demeanor of Sera completely cracked. She stared at the girl in the linen dress. "Rank 2? The Soul Weaver?"

Aria flushed bright red and aggressively hid her face behind the small woven basket. "I did not want to brag! The system just gave it to me! I swear!"

"She also gave me a flower that deals fifty thousand unmitigated true damage per second," Dante added casually.

The jaw of Mei dropped. The Brawler looked at the fragile girl with a mixture of absolute awe and sheer terror.

"You... you casually handed out a localized nuclear weapon as a thank you gift?"

"It was pretty!" Aria defended herself indignantly and peeked over the top of the basket. "It was glowing red! I did not know it melted things until the boss told me later!"

Dante shook his head, and a small smile broke his stoic expression.

The anomaly squad was officially complete.

He had a reality-warping toddler, a brawler with an indestructible pan, a chantless gravity mage, a flamboyant bruiser, and now, the most terrifying lethal support class on the server disguised as a clueless beginner.

"Come in, Aria," Dante said and gestured to the sofa. "We have a lot to talk about."

Aria scurried into the room and looked relieved. She set her woven basket down on the mahogany table.

"I brought a housewarming gift!" Aria announced cheerfully.

"I finished my localized starter village questline, and the old lady there gave me this really weird glowing seed."

"I do not know what it does, but it looks like it belongs in a fancy building like this."

Aria reached into her basket.

She didn’t pull out a deadly un-cleansable poison flower this time.

She pulled out a massive fist-sized seed. It didn’t look like a plant.

It looked like it was carved from solid pulsing jade. It radiated an incredibly intense warm golden light that instantly illuminated the entire VIP suite.

The localized ambient mana in the room didn’t just spike. It actively roared.

Dante stared at the seed. His Intuition stat pinged so hard it actually gave him a brief localized headache.

He quickly pulled up the system interface and used his [Zenith Incarnate] title to bypass the heavy encryption on the item.

[Item Appraised: Bode Heart Seed]

[Tier: Universal Anomaly (1 of 7)]

[Description: One of the Seven Ultimate Hidden Items. Contains the localized essence of absolute sanctuary.]

Dante slowly looked up from the interface and stared at the innocent smiling girl in the beginner dress.

"Aria," Dante whispered, and his voice was completely flat. "How do you keep casually stumbling into the most broken items in the entire game?"