The Vanguard’s Legacy guildhall in Outpost 404 was an absolute masterpiece of early-game architecture.

Silas had spent the last eight hours funneling millions of Veridian credits into the game to expedite the construction.

He had purchased a massive plot of land in the premium sector of the Outpost. He erected high stone walls and built a sprawling three-story manor.

It was a physical manifestation of his ego and power.

Currently, Silas was pacing back and forth across the lavishly decorated war room. His heavy Silver-grade boots thudded against the hardwood floor.

His lieutenants stood around the room in absolute silence. No one wanted to be the first to speak.

"He is a ghost," Silas snapped. He stopped to glare at a massive holographic map of the starter zones projected on the table.

"You are telling me you deployed five hundred players into the Whispering Chasm, and nobody found him?"

"Guild Master," a nervous ranger spoke up from the back.

"We swept the entire Chasm. The fog was incredibly dense, and the Shadow-Stalkers wiped out three of our squads.

But there was no sign of Dan. The boss arena at the bottom was completely empty. It was stripped to the bedrock."

"He killed a Titan-tier anomaly," Silas gritted his teeth. His voice trembled with suppressed fury.

"You do not just kill a Titan and casually walk away. He has to be resting. He has to be vulnerable."

"Sir," another officer interrupted. He pointed at the large digital clock mounted on the wall. "It is noon."

Silas froze.

The entire server had been anticipating this exact moment.

Twelve hours after the launch of Overture, the Zenith Protocol officially unlocked the Global Leaderboards.

This was the ultimate metric of power.

The leaderboards dictated which guilds received the best real-world sponsorships. They decided which players became celebrities and who controlled the global economy.

Silas had carefully orchestrated his entire strategy around this moment. Vanguard’s Legacy was supposed to completely dominate the boards.

A server-wide chime echoed through the guildhall. It sounded like a massive celestial gong.

[System Event: The Global Leaderboards are now active.]

[Categories unlocked: Player Level, Pet Rankings, Equipment Rankings, Guild Rankings.]

Silas didn’t even wait for the prompt to fade.

He slashed his hand through the air. He violently pulled up his own interface and expanded the Leaderboard window for the entire war room to see.

"Let us see just how much of a fluke this guy really is," Silas sneered.

He opened the Player Level leaderboard first.

Silas expected to be in the top five. He had power-leveled with a dedicated squad of healers and tanks funneling him experience. He was Level 15.

[Global Level Rankings]

[Rank 1: Dan - Level 19]

[Rank 2: Ryujin - Level 16]

[Rank 3: Gilded (Silas) - Level 15]

Silas stared at the glowing number one spot. The name ’Dan’ mocked him in bold gold lettering.

A Level 19 player on day one was a mathematical impossibility without a full raid team carrying them, and Dan was entirely un-guilded.

"Fine," Silas spat and waved his hand to switch the tab. "He got lucky with a massive boss EXP drop. Let us look at the pets."

He tapped the Pet Rankings. Pets were incredibly rare.

Silas knew of maybe three players who had managed to tame basic wolves or boars.

[Global Pet Rankings]

[Rank 1: Aura (Doom Harbinger) - Grade 7 - Owner: Dan]

[Rank 2: Ironfang Cub - Grade 2 - Owner: Ryujin]

[Rank 3: Empty]

The room went dead silent.

"Grade 7?" an officer whispered in horror. "A Grade 7 pet? The system scaling does not even list stats for Grade 7 yet."

The face of Silas turned an ugly shade of red. He didn’t say a word.

He violently swiped to the final tab. The Equipment Rankings.

This was the only one that mattered. Silas had the [Aegis Blueprint]. It was a Supreme-tier artifact.

It bypassed the core reset rules of the game. It was by all known logic the absolute best item currently existing in the Zenith Protocol.

It was the item he had driven a dagger through the back of his best friend to acquire.

He pulled up the list.

[Global Equipment Rankings]

[Rank 1: Tear of the Forgotten (Soul-Bound Anomaly) - Grade: Mythic] - Owner: Dan

[Rank 2: Aegis Blueprint - Grade: Supreme] - Owner: Gilded

[Rank 3: Band of the Void-Walker - Grade: Titan] - Owner: Dan

Silas stopped breathing.

His eyes locked onto the number one slot. The [Aegis Blueprint] was sitting at number two.

"Tear of the Forgotten," Silas read the name aloud. His voice was completely hollow.

He remembered that name.

Dante had worn a garbage crystal pendant around his neck for the last two years. Dante had called it the Tear of the Forgotten.

Silas had laughed at him for keeping a useless and broken cosmetic item.

"He is alive," Silas whispered.

"Sir?" an officer asked and stepped forward cautiously. "Who is alive?"

Silas suddenly slammed both of his hands onto the holographic map table!

The projection glitched out in a burst of static.

"It is Vanguard," Silas roared. His composure completely shattered. "Dan is Vanguard! He did not die! He survived the capsule overload!"

The officers exchanged terrified glances.

If Vanguard was alive, the entire PR narrative Silas had built was a total lie.

If the public found out Silas had murdered the number one player and stolen his gear, Vanguard’s Legacy would be blacklisted by every nation on Veridia.

"Listen to me!" Silas screamed. He grabbed the closest officer by the collar of his armor.

"I am issuing a blank check. I do not care if you have to hire every assassin in the Sakura Nation. I do not care if you have to bribe the Outpost guards."

"You find Dan. You corner him. And you make sure he dies permanently!"

Silas shoved the officer away. He paced frantically and ran his hands through his perfectly styled hair.

"He is playing me," Silas muttered. His eyes were wide with paranoia. "He is doing this on purpose. He is taking the leaderboards to send me a message."

Silas pulled up his friend list. He clicked on a highly encrypted contact named ’Malric’.

Malric was the head of the real-world enforcer division of the Syndicate. He didn’t just play the game. He hunted people down outside the capsules.

"Malric," Silas typed furiously into the private chat. "Dan is Vanguard. Mobilize the heavy squads in-game. And trace his neural signature. I want his physical location on Veridia. We end this before he talks."