A thousand years had passed since the chase began.
No — that was just Dexter's perception of this never-ending nightmare.
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy…
'FUCK! WHY AM I FREESTYLING IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS SHITSHOW?!'
His heart pounded like a war drum. Carrying 100 million worth of crafted gear was no joke — especially when being chased by twenty PKers, one riding a mount so fast it was like a Supra chasing a rickshaw.
Then his gamer instincts kicked in — that razor-sharp focus that once made him pro.
He spotted enemies dismounting in the distance. Still too far to reach him, but he swerved east anyway.
"MAMA!" he screamed with every near-missed attack, the battlefield becoming his absurd rap battleground.
Arrows, crossbow bolts, and crowd control spells hurtled toward him, yet he managed to narrowly evade them all.
Dexter morphed his bracers into a bow and arrow, struggling to aim at the Chaser Hawk pursuing him while his Sabertooth weaved through the onslaught of attacks. He surrendered control to his mount's instincts — trusting the beast was his only option now.
'Damn it! Why is there no auto-aim when you need it?!'
Then inspiration struck.
'Fine... Then I'll make sure my arrow hits anyway.'
The arrow in his hand transformed, its tip now pulsing with a faint light. He loosed the shot without perfect aim — but it didn't matter. The homing arrow curved mid-flight, striking true and piercing the Chaser Hawk's wing.
The creature faltered, its speed bleeding away...
Until a surge of divine light enveloped the hawk, sealing its wound.
"FUCK!"
How can I escape this...? Damn it, I should've just sold everything in the Safe Zone!
After what felt like an eternity of running, Dexter finally exited the zone — only to find a fresh wave of players joining the chase, swelling the original PKers' numbers.
"Fuck this! I'm not even using a Mammoth... Why are they so obsessed with me?"
'/Inspect.'
Dexter's face darkened as the information flooded in.
Fucking newbies! I thought veteran PKers were hunting me... That bastard on the Chaser Hawk? Just a glorified babysitter for these wannabes.
Spotting a nearby dungeon, Dexter leapt from his mount, stashed the Sabertooth in his bracers, and swiftly equipped a sword and cloak. As his invisibility activated, he slipped into the dungeon's shadows.
'I'll pick you off one by one in here.'
His confidence surged — his newly transformed gear now rivaled Tier VII equipment. More than enough to slaughter these fools stuck with Tier VI scraps.
…
"WHERE IS HE?! HOW THE FUCK DID WE LOSE HIM?!"
"SEARCH EVERYWHERE! PING GUILD CHAT IF YOU SPOT HIM!"
GreenBlob barked orders at his newly formed guild. Having completed the Tutorial Zone just a few months ago, he'd immediately joined a rising guild under the Limitless Alliance — the perks were too good to pass up. XP boosts for Uncharted Zones. Free gear based on contribution.
Back on Earth, GreenBlob had been an Eldrion Online veteran, a renowned shotcaller who'd commanded thousands in territorial wars. Now? Reduced to babysitting rookies.
"GreenBlob... what happened?"
A woman descended from her Chaser Hawk, her healing staff glinting against the cloth armor hugging her figure.
"Miss Nika... we lost the Sabertooth rider," GreenBlob admitted.
Nika's gaze turned glacial.
"So? What now?"
"Fall back to the southwestern zone. Resume training." Her voice dripped contempt.
"Pathetic. Your 'inescapable net' couldn't even catch a lone Sabertooth? You're worse than I thought."
GreenBlob forced a smile so painfully fake his eye began twitching.
'Damn this bitch. You'll regret this someday...'
"RALLY THE OTHERS! LUCY-CHAN!"
"G-Green! My party... three of them just — I don't even know where — "
"Damn it! Where were they last seen?"
…
"You actually thought you could hunt me?" Dexter advanced slowly toward the crawling man, his voice dripping with mockery.
With a brutal thrust, he impaled the man's skull with his sword — then willed the blade to twist and reform into a pulsating Necromancer Bone Scepter.
At Tier VII potency, the scepter granted him command over 70 skeletons, limited only by his mana reserves.
Dexter's gaze swept across the three fallen players' corpses. Channeling his most guttural, demonic voice — so unnerving it gave even him chills — he rasped:
"Arise~"
Bones reassembled with grotesque cracks. He cackled madly as he armed the skeletons with Tier VI swords and Tier VI armor, stationing them at the dungeon entrance with a single directive:
"Slaughter anything that steps inside."
Deeper in the shadows, Dexter waited. Watched. Anticipated. His trap now primed to spring.
…
Every player who stumbled into the dungeon fell victim to his skeletal legion. One by one, until thirteen reanimated warriors stood guard at the entrance.
"This out-of-game Scepter might be the most OP item yet..." Dexter mused, studying the bone staff. "Should I craft something similar for Stella?"
A chuckle escaped him. "Though she'd probably refuse to befriend a skeleton."
"Perhaps a Summoner Staff? Something that conjures actual pets..."
Thanks to Gridlock's forgotten teachings — overshadowed by Eldrion's standardized crafting system — Dexter could create anything he imagined, provided he had the right materials. This gave him a crucial advantage over other crafters who never considered innovation. While they focused solely on mass production and profit, chasing the most marketable items, Dexter remembered the true essence of crafting: the art of creation itself.
While others chased gold, Dexter alone wielded invention.
He waited inside, yawning from boredom. Suddenly, a familiar face entered the dungeon where he'd been hiding.
GreenBlob raised his shield just in time to block the skeleton's downward sword slash.
"LUCY! USE SMITE!"
Lucy-chan quickly chanted, sending a holy bolt that obliterated one skeleton instantly.
From the shadows, Dexter facepalmed hard.
'Damn... I thought my skeleton army could dominate the Uncharted Zone... Didn't realize they'd die in one hit to Smite.'
'Well, what now? I don't have a real necromancer's passive skills in this classless game... but this'll have to do.'
He morphed his cloak into another Necromancer Bone Scepter — this one with a different ability.
'Corpse Explosion.'
The skeletons detonated simultaneously, razor-sharp bone shards shredding through the chamber. Lucy-chan died instantly, her flimsy cloth armor offering no protection. GreenBlob staggered, blood gushing as his HP plummeted...
"Hey... been a while. Remember me?" Dexter's voice dripped with mock nostalgia as he emerged from the shadows.