The system broadcast didn’t just appear in Sector 7. It appeared everywhere. Every single surviving player on Earth saw the exact same golden text floating in their vision.

The chime was so incredibly loud it made players drop their weapons. It rang out in the underground bunkers. It echoed through the ruined flooded streets. It reached the ears of low-level newbies hiding in the dark and max-leveled veterans fighting on the front lines.

[Global Server Announcement]

↳ System Purge Entity Deployed.

↳ Target: Sector 7.

[Entity Stats Revealed]

↳ Name: The Apex Eradicator

↳ Level: 100

↳ HP: 50,000,000 / 50,000,000

↳ Base Attack: 8,000,000

↳ Defense: Unbreakable Conceptual Barrier

The global chat instantly exploded. It moved so incredibly fast that the text was just a solid blinding blur of white light. Nobody could read individual messages. It was just pure unfiltered global panic.

Down in the courtyard of the Iron Bastion, the three thousand refugees completely lost their minds.

Players screamed and dropped to their knees. Some started violently throwing up from the sheer psychological stress of seeing those numbers. Others just curled into tight balls on the stone pavement and covered their heads, waiting for the server to finally put them out of their misery.

Up on the high stone wall, Commander Richter stared at the golden text. His battle-scarred face was totally blank. His brain was trying to process the numbers, and it was completely failing.

"Fifty million health," Richter whispered, his voice cracking like a dry twig. "Eight million base attack."

He slowly lowered his heavy railgun. The highly modified weapon hit the stone floor with a dull pathetic clank.

"It’s over," Richter said, shaking his head slowly. "My absolute best tanks have maybe sixty thousand health points. Eight million damage? That isn’t an attack. That’s a delete button for the entire continent. A single hit is mathematically guaranteed to wipe any player on Earth. There is no armor set in the database that survives that."

Nova stood next to him. She didn’t say a word. The elite hacker just stared up at the massive machine slowly descending from the red sky.

Her hands were trembling slightly. She knew the game’s math better than anyone. The numbers were absolute. You couldn’t outplay eight million damage with strategy or skill.

Sloane and Kendra had already rushed down the stairs, frantically trying to herd the screaming refugees into the central keep like Declan had ordered.

Declan just stood there. He looked at the golden text taking up the sky. He looked at the fifty million health points. He looked at the eight million attack.

Then, he laughed.

It was a low dark chuckle that completely cut through the despair on the wall.

Richter snapped his head to look at him. "Are you crazy?! Did you read the prompt? It has eight million attack! It will vaporize you!"

"I can read, Richter," Declan said smoothly. He didn’t look worried at all. He actually looked highly amused.

He honestly thought the stats were cute.

Declan pulled up his own status screen in his mind. He looked at his Abyssal Sovereign multipliers. He looked at the +1,000 flat defense from his Black Aegis riot shield sitting in his inventory. He looked at the massive true damage reflection trait on his armor. He looked at the Sanguine Engine sitting in his chest, ready to convert overkill damage into infinite health.

Eight million damage sounded like a lot to a normal player. To Declan, it just sounded like a really fast and highly efficient way to fully stack his blood shield.

A deafening mechanical screech suddenly ripped through the air.

The Apex Eradicator dropped another hundred feet. It was now hovering directly over the Iron Bastion.

The machine emitted a massive pulse of raw destructive energy. The sheer weight of the pulse shattered the glass windows in every ruined building outside the city walls. The physical shockwave hit the red energy dome of the Iron Bastion like a tidal wave.

CRACK!

The transparent red barrier groaned loudly. A massive spiderweb of cracks instantly formed across the top of the dome.

The sub-core was failing. Bram’s raw mana crystals, no matter how highly upgraded, couldn’t handle the passive gravitational weight of a Level 100 Entity pressing down on them.

"The shield is breaking!" Richter yelled, backing away from the edge of the wall. "If that thing fires its weapons while we are inside the dome, the splash damage will instantly vaporize everyone in the courtyard! The structural collapse alone will crush us!"

Declan knew he was right. He couldn’t fight this thing while standing next to his own city. The collateral damage from an eight-million-damage blast would completely wipe out his workforce and ruin his beautifully crafted forges. He had to take the aggro outside. He had to draw its fire away from the Bastion.

"Get off the wall," Declan ordered. He didn’t look at Richter or Nova. He kept his eyes locked on the massive red lens of the Eradicator.

"What?" Nova asked, her voice shaking as she backed up.

"I said get off the wall," Declan repeated, his tone heavy with absolute Warlord authority. "Go hide in the keep. I’m taking the fight outside."

Richter stared at him like he was looking at a madman. "You can’t survive out there! The environmental damage alone will melt you! It’s a Level 100 kill zone!"

"Watch me," Declan said flatly.

He didn’t wait for them to leave. He tapped into his administrative interface. He targeted the section of the red energy dome directly in front of him.

"System. Open the front door."

A ten-foot-wide section of the red barrier hissed and dissolved. The toxic freezing wind of the wasteland instantly rushed in, blowing Declan’s black coat wildly behind him. The smell of ozone and burning metal filled his nose.

Declan stepped right off the high stone wall.

He didn’t use Void Blink. He didn’t need to waste the stamina.

He fell fifty feet and slammed into the wet muddy asphalt outside the city. His +10 Spiked Striders hit the ground with a massive heavy crunch. The Kinetic Dampener trait completely absorbed the fall damage. He didn’t even bend his knees to brace himself.

He stood up perfectly straight.

"System. Close the door."

The red barrier instantly snapped shut behind him. The cracks in the dome slowly repaired themselves. The Iron Bastion was completely sealed off again.

Declan was standing entirely alone in the ruined streets of Sector 7. He was completely exposed.

He looked up at the Apex Eradicator. The towering machine of floating server blocks and heavy cannons completely blocked out the sky. It was easily the size of three city blocks.

He didn’t summon the +40 Eclipse Severance. He didn’t want to use his halberd right now. He needed to tank the first hit to build his shield and test the waters.

"System. Equip the Black Aegis."

The air in front of his left forearm distorted violently. The heavy matte-black titanium riot shield materialized with a loud metallic clank. He strapped it tightly to his arm, feeling the +20 Sovereign-tier defense lock into place.

He rolled his shoulders. The dense mythical alloy bones in his body popped loudly.

He looked right at the massive glowing red lens of the boss.

"Hey, trash can!" Declan yelled. His abnormally deep voice echoed perfectly across the ruined city blocks, completely ignoring the howling wind. "Look down here!"

The Apex Eradicator stopped descending.

The massive floating server blocks slowly shifted. The heavy artillery cannons mounted on its sides rotated downward. The giant glowing red optical lens completely focused on the tiny human in the black coat standing in the mud.

The system interface in Declan’s vision flashed a bright glaring red.

[System Notification]

↳ Target Locked: Player V

"That’s right," Declan smirked, raising his shield. "Come get deleted."

The red lens on the Eradicator flared with a blinding apocalyptic light. It began to charge its ultimate attack.