Chapter 92: [92] : Merging the Sanctums, The Black Iron Megacity

Declan slid to a perfectly smooth stop right in front of his warehouse.

The massive dome of transparent black energy still covered the building and the surrounding block. The purple pillar of light shooting up into the sky was acting like a giant beacon in the middle of the dark ruined slums.

He casually stepped through the barrier.

The system recognized his administrative signature and let him pass without any resistance.

Inside the warehouse, things were tense.

Sloane was pacing back and forth next to the hospital bed. She was holding a heavy iron wrench she had found in the corner.

Kendra was perched on top of the stolen corporate dive pod. Her +10 Sniper Bow was fully drawn and aimed at the front door.

When Declan walked in, both girls nearly jumped out of their skin.

"Declan!" Sloane yelled and dropped the wrench. "Did you look outside?! The sky is broken! There are dragons! Did you break the planet?!"

"I did not break it," Declan said calmly. He brushed some ash off his Predator’s Coat. "I just sped up the loading screen. The Great Convergence was going to happen anyway."

Kendra lowered her bow. Her hands were shaking.

"The news said the servers crashed. They said the game is over."

"The game is over," Declan agreed.

He walked over to the hospital bed and checked the life support monitors. The machines were humming perfectly. They were drawing endless clean energy directly from his mutated core.

Mia was still sleeping peacefully. She was completely unaware that the world was ending outside.

"But the rules still apply," Declan continued. "As long as we follow the Grid’s physics, we survive. Which means we need to upgrade this base."

He looked around the empty warehouse. The dome outside was strong.

The +20 Sovereign Core Crystal he had planted was generating a solid shield. But it was small. It only covered a one kilometer radius.

And it was just a shield. It did not have walls, it did not have turrets, and it did not have his forge.

All of his actual city infrastructure was still sitting in the digital version of Sector 4.

"Sloane, get ready," Declan ordered.

"Ready for what?" Sloane asked nervously.

"A massive renovation."

Declan raised his right hand. The dark silver Ring of the Void Hoarder gleamed on his index finger. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

He tapped into his system interface. His Abyssal Sovereign class allowed him to bypass normal game menus and access the core data directly.

He pulled up the Iron Bastion Management Panel.

The system showed his massive digital city sitting in the void. He had severed its anchor to the Grid’s servers. This meant it was currently just floating data waiting to be deleted.

He was not going to let that happen.

Declan reached out and placed his hand flat against the glowing purple terminal of his Earth Sanctum core.

’System,’ Declan commanded in his mind. ’Initiate data merge. Target: Iron Bastion. Destination: Earth Sanctum.’

A bright red warning prompt flashed in his vision instantly.

[Warning: Attempting to merge external digital architecture with physical reality.]

[Error: Mass of incoming data exceeds physical spatial limits.]

[Catastrophic structural overlap imminent.]

[Merge Denied.]

"I really hate it when you say no," Declan muttered.

His pitch black eyes flared with raw dark purple energy. The thick corrupted veins on his arms bulged.

He did not ask the system for permission. He used his sixty percent real world synchronization to force his Ascendant tier authority right down the server’s throat.

"Override," Declan growled.

His voice carried a heavy terrifying bass that rattled the concrete floor.

"I am the Warlord. Bring my city here. Now!"

The red warning box violently shattered like cheap glass.

A new prompt appeared. It was glowing in bright brilliant gold.

[Entity Status Recognized: Abyssal Sovereign.]

[Override Accepted. Initiating Full Structural Merge.]

The ground beneath their feet violently shook! It felt like a massive magnitude nine earthquake was ripping right through Sector 7.

"Hold onto something!" Declan yelled over the deafening rumble.

Sloane grabbed the rails of the hospital bed. Kendra dropped flat onto the dive pod and covered her head.

The physical reality of the warehouse began to aggressively shift.

The rusted corrugated iron walls thickened and turned into massive blocks of perfectly smooth black iron. The concrete floor cracked and smoothed out. It transformed into elegant heavy paving stones.

The ruined sagging roof shot upward. It expanded into towering gothic spires that pierced the sky.

The small dirty warehouse was gone. In its place stood the central keep of a massive and terrifying iron citadel!

But it did not stop there.

Outside the building, the real world slums of Sector 7 were being violently overwritten by the game’s engine.

Broken apartment buildings, flooded streets, and burning cars were instantly deleted. They were replaced by the Iron Bastion’s architecture.

The one kilometer dome expanded outward at blinding speed. It pushed past the alleyways. It swallowed the ruined commercial district.

It expanded to two kilometers. Then five. Then a massive ten kilometers!

The heavy spiked walls of the Thorned Aegis materialized out of thin air. They slammed down into the physical earth and crushed any monsters that happened to be standing there.

The Iron Bastion grew into a sprawling megacity. It ate a massive chunk of Sector 7 and turned it into a perfectly clean heavily fortified fortress.

The system chimes rang out loudly in Declan’s head.

[Territory Merge Complete: 10 Kilometer Radius.]

[Safe Zone: The Iron Bastion is now fully anchored in physical reality.]

The shaking finally stopped. The purple energy dome settled into its new massive position high up in the sky. It completely blocked out the dark clouds and the flying dragons.

Declan let out a long breath. He rolled his shoulders.

Then, a massive flash of blue light exploded in the center of the newly formed courtyard outside the keep.

Declan walked out the heavy iron doors. Sloane and Kendra cautiously followed him.

Standing in the middle of the massive stone plaza were three thousand completely bewildered players.

These were the people who had been hiding in the digital Iron Bastion when Declan severed the anchor. Because they were inside the city’s data, the system simply carried them over during the merge.

They had just been teleported out of their dive pods and dropped directly into their real world bodies!

"What happened?!" a player yelled. He was looking at his real hands.

He was not wearing his game armor anymore. He was wearing an old t-shirt and sweatpants.

"Did we log out?" another player asked in pure panic.

Sitting in the very front of the crowd, next to a massive perfectly materialized stone forge, was an old man with a thick beard and a black obsidian mechanical arm.

Bram, the Level 30 Master Artificer, looked around the courtyard. He looked up at the sky. He blinked.

The NPC had been pulled into the real world too!

Bram spotted Declan standing on the steps of the keep. The old blacksmith walked over. His heavy boots thudded against the stone. He wiped some real world rainwater off his face.

"Boss?" Bram grunted. He looked highly confused. "Why does the air taste different? And why is everyone wearing such terrible clothes?"

Declan smiled. A genuine terrifying smile.

"Welcome to the real world, Bram," Declan said. "I brought the forges. We have a lot of work to do."