Chapter 130: [130] : The Corrupted Server Hub, Hunting the Hounds

Declan stood in the dark and rain soaked alleyway.

He was fully geared up. He wore the heavy pitch black Predator’s Coat. The plus 20 Abyssal Vanguard Bracer rested securely on his left forearm, humming with raw defensive power. Sitting comfortably on his head was the plus 20 Abyssal Sovereign Crown. This insanely broken item granted him absolute immunity to any mental or telepathic attacks.

He completely looked like a final boss that had somehow wandered out of his own dungeon.

"Alright," Declan said to break the silence. He casually shoved his hands into his coat pockets. "You all head back to the Iron Bastion. Tell Sloane to keep the gates locked and the forges running. I have some business to take care of."

Nova adjusted the collar of her spare tactical jacket and swallowed hard. "Where are you going? You just robbed the central developer treasury. Apex Paradigm is going to send everything they have at you."

"I am counting on it," Declan smiled. It was a cold and predatory smile. "But right now, I need to push my level. Level 75 is great, but I have a server merge coming to my front door in a few days. I need to hit the higher caps."

Morgan frowned heavily. "You cannot just grind normal mobs to level up anymore. The experience scaling at Level 75 is a massive wall. You need millions of points just to move the bar an inch."

"Then I will go somewhere that pays better," Declan replied. "Go home. Do not die on the way back."

He did not even wait for them to argue. He tapped into the massive stamina pool provided by his Abyssal Sovereign class.

"Void Blink."

The world went pitch black for a fraction of a millisecond. Declan bypassed the alleyway, the ruined buildings, and the toxic rain entirely. He chained the teleportation skill flawlessly. He skipped across the physical map of Sector 7 like an absolute ghost!

He was heading for a highly specific set of coordinates he had pulled from the global server map.

A few seconds later, his heavy Spiked Striders hit solid ground with a loud crunch. He stood up straight and looked around.

He was no longer in the ruined city streets. The environment was completely different. The sky above was choked with thick and glowing green clouds of data. Massive towers of rusted server racks stretched up into the sky like metallic trees. Thick black cables snaked across the ground and pulsed with dangerous red electricity.

Knee deep toxic sludge covered the floor. It bubbled and popped with a foul smell that reminded him of burnt plastic and rotten eggs.

A system prompt popped up in his vision.

[System Notification]

↳ Entered Area: The Corrupted Server Hub

↳ Warning: Level 30 to Level 80 Quarantine Zone. Severe data corruption detected. Environmental hazards active.

Declan did not even flinch. The toxic sludge splashed against his boots, but the plus 10 Spiked Striders completely ignored the terrain debuffs. The corruptive air tried to aggressively eat away at his health bar. However, the massive 300,000 HP shield generated by his Sovereign Crown did not even drop by a single digit!

He was a walking fortress. The environment simply could not touch him.

But looking out at the sprawling and endless maze of rusted server racks and digital swamps, Declan frowned. The zone was massive. It looked like a city made entirely of computer parts.

"I cannot just wander around hoping to bump into a boss," Declan muttered to himself. "This place is too big. I need eyes."

He pulled up his system interface with a quick mental command and opened his digital inventory.

Over the past few days, he had looted hundreds of items from the Black Vanguard, the Neon Syndicate, and the random monsters he had crushed. He had a massive pile of cheap and useless skill books sitting in his storage taking up space.

He scrolled through the junk. He found three different Scavenged tier tracking skills. One was a basic footprint tracker. Another was a low level heat sensor. The last one was a cheap audio enhancement skill.

To a normal player, these were garbage. You could only equip a few active skills at a time. Wasting a slot on a weak footprint tracker was a great way to get killed in a boss fight.

But Declan was not a normal player. He was the Warlord. He had root access!

He used his Abyssal Sovereign administrative authority. He dragged the three cheap skill files and smashed them directly on top of each other in his menu.

The system interface immediately flashed an angry and glaring red.

[System Error] 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

↳ Skill fusion requires matching elemental affinities.

↳ Incompatible code types detected. Fusion denied.

"Force it," Declan commanded out loud. His voice rumbled with a heavy and unnatural bass that shook the toxic puddles around his boots.

His SSS Rank talent known as Boundless Enhancement surged forward. It acted like a digital sledgehammer. It completely crushed the system safety protocols and deleted the red warning boxes in an instant. The three skill files violently merged together and flashed with a blinding gold light.

[System Update]

↳ Skill Fusion Successful.

↳ New Skill Created: Quantum Radar

↳ Tier: Epic

↳ Description: The user sends out a completely undetectable pulse of dark mana. Highlights all living entities, hidden traps, and loot drops within a five mile radius. Bypasses all standard stealth and invisibility magic.

Declan sneered. "That is much better."

He did not hesitate and activated the skill immediately.

A silent and invisible wave of dark purple energy rippled outward from his body. It washed over the rusted server towers, plunged through the toxic sludge, and swept across the entire quarantine zone.

Instantly, his minimap lit up.

Hundreds of red dots appeared and scattered across the maze. Those were the regular corrupted monsters wandering the area. But Declan was not interested in the random mobs. He was looking for something specific.

His eyes locked onto a cluster of ten dots moving together about two miles to his left.

They were not moving aimlessly like monsters. They were moving with a highly specific and coordinated pattern. They were sweeping the area, stopping at intersections, and moving from cover to cover.

"Players," Declan noted.

He zoomed in on the data the Quantum Radar fed back to him. The system pulled up their basic visual models.

They looked like standard low level scavengers. They wore mismatched leather armor, rusted iron chest plates, and carried cheap wooden spears. They looked exactly like the desperate and starving refugees Declan had put to work back at the Iron Bastion.

But Declan was not fooled for a single second.

"You guys really suck at playing dress up," Declan laughed softly.

He looked closer at their movements. A starving Level 5 scavenger did not hold a wooden spear with perfect tactical trigger discipline. A random newbie did not step exactly in the footprints of the guy in front of him to hide their numbers. And low level players definitely did not have high end optical camouflage layered underneath their cheap leather vests!

The stealth magic was completely invisible to the naked eye. But his Epic tier Quantum Radar ripped right through it and exposed the high tech energy signatures burning beneath their fake armor.

"Apex Hounds," Declan said.

They had not just sent one hit squad. After Declan wiped out Sterling and his massive army, the megacorp had retreated and formed a small fraction, sent a smaller and stealthier team to infiltrate the sector. They were corporate spies. Elite infiltrators disguised as trash mobs, sneaking through the hazard zones.

They were probably looking for a backdoor into the Iron Bastion. Or maybe they were trying to set up a warp beacon to drop another bomb on his head.

"Well," Declan cracked his knuckles. The dense and mutated bones popped loudly. "Let us go say hello."

He did not walk. He did not run.

"Void Blink."

The world went pitch black again. Declan vanished from the toxic swamp. He teleported rapidly and chained the blinks together perfectly. He completely bypassed the winding maze of server racks and the pools of acid. He moved like a skipping shadow and closed the two mile gap in a matter of seconds.

He stopped on top of a massive and rusted cooling tower overlooking a wide clearing.

Down below, the ten disguised corporate spies were moving quietly through the sludge. The rain bounced off their fake rusted armor. The guy in the front held up a fist. The entire squad stopped instantly and froze in place like statues.

The leader pulled a small and sleek metallic device from his pocket. It did not fit his scavenger outfit at all. It looked like a highly advanced tracking terminal.

Declan crouched on the edge of the cooling tower. He looked down at the squad with his pitch black eyes. He did not pull out a weapon. He did not cast a massive fireball.

He just watched them. They were in his territory. They were trespassing in his game. And he was about to show them exactly what happened when you tried to sneak up on an Abyssal Sovereign.

"I hope you guys drop some good loot," Declan whispered into the dark.

He stood up and perfectly balanced on the edge of the rusted metal drop. He was ready to crash their little stealth mission.