The atmosphere inside Outpost 404 was entirely different when Dante walked back through the shattered wooden gates.

The panic was gone and replaced by a massive chaotic celebration.

Players were cheering, drinking from digital flasks, and celebrating the fact that their VR capsules hadn’t fried their brains.

The NPCs had returned to their standard scripting and completely ignored the fact that a massive dragon had just tried to wipe the server.

Dante kept his player ID hidden. But the massive and glowing Gold-tier [Sun-Forged Cuirass] and the pitch-black [Mantle of the Void-Dragon] made him impossible to ignore.

The crowds actively parted for him.

Players didn’t swarm him or beg for loot. They just watched him walk past with a mixture of absolute awe and sheer terror.

He had saved the Outpost, but he had also casually executed a god. He was an anomaly, and anomalies were dangerous.

"This is great," Casanova beamed. He strutted proudly behind Dante and completely soaked in the attention. "We are legends, Big Brother. We own this town."

"You punched a guy and hid behind a rock," Dante pointed out. He navigated toward the merchant district to find a quiet place to log out.

"I provided crucial moral support!" Casanova argued.

Before Dante could respond, a small figure stepped out from the cheering crowd and blocked his path.

Dante stopped.

It was a girl. She looked incredibly young, maybe nineteen or twenty.

She was wearing a simple and unadorned beginner linen dress. She didn’t have any weapons equipped.

She looked fragile, innocent, and completely out of place among the heavily armored players celebrating the victory.

Her player ID hovered above her head in soft white letters.

[ID: Aria]

[Level: 3]

"Excuse me," Aria said softly. Her voice barely carried over the noise of the crowd.

She looked up at Dante. Her large brown eyes were wide with apparent admiration.

"Can I help you?" Dante asked. His Intuition stat remained completely silent.

The system didn’t register her as a threat. She was just a Level 3 beginner.

"I just wanted to say thank you," Aria said and gave a small polite bow.

"You saved all of us. If you had not fought that dragon, I would have lost my free revive. I do not have much to offer, but... I found this in the forest yesterday. I wanted you to have it."

Aria reached into her small linen pocket and pulled out a flower.

It was a beautiful and delicate blossom. The petals were a deep luminescent crimson that glowed with a soft and pulsing light.

"It is really pretty," Aria smiled shyly and held it out to him. "It is a glowing flower. I thought a hero should have it."

Dante looked at the flower. Then he looked at Aria.

He didn’t want to be a jerk to a terrified beginner. But he also didn’t need random cosmetic junk taking up space in his inventory, infinite or not.

"Keep it," Dante said and gently pushed her hand away. "Sell it to a merchant for a few coppers. You need the gear more than I do."

Aria looked crestfallen. "Please? I insist. It is my way of saying thank you. It is bad luck to refuse a gift."

Casanova leaned over the shoulder of Dante. "Take the flower, Boss. Do not be rude to the fans."

Dante sighed. He reached out and took the crimson flower from her hand. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The moment his iron-plated gauntlet touched the delicate petals, his system interface violently glitched!

A massive and flashing red warning prompt completely covered his vision.

[Item Appraised: Bloom of Decay]

[Tier: Lore Item (Cursed)]

[Toxicity Level: Absolute]

[Description: A highly concentrated and physical manifestation of primordial rot. If consumed or applied to an open wound, the Bloom inflicts an un-cleansable and permanent ’Decay’ debuff. The target will lose 10% of their Maximum HP every second until True Death occurs. Ignores all standard immunities.]

Dante froze.

He stared at the delicate and glowing crimson flower resting in his palm.

Ten percent of maximum HP every second. Un-cleansable. Ignores standard immunities.

It was an instant-death sentence disguised as a pretty cosmetic item.

If he didn’t have his [Aetherial Nectar] buff granting him absolute immunity to instant-death mechanics, just holding this thing might have triggered a passive poison effect.

He looked up at Aria.

The innocent and fragile beginner was still smiling shyly with her hands clasped behind her back.

"Thank you again, Mr. Hero," Aria said sweetly.

She turned around and skipped happily away. She disappeared into the chaotic and cheering crowd.

Dante didn’t move.

He opened his system interface, ignored his inventory entirely, and pulled up the Global Leaderboards.

He didn’t check the Player Level tab. He swiped over to the Hidden Class Rankings.

The list was mostly empty. Hidden Classes were incredibly rare. They usually required massive and convoluted quest chains to unlock.

But there was one name sitting in the number one slot.

[Global Hidden Class Rankings]

[Rank 1: Soul Weaver - Owner: Aria]

Dante slowly closed the interface.

She wasn’t a Level 3 beginner.

She was the number one ranked Hidden Class on the entire Overture server.

And she had just casually handed him the most lethal and game-breaking poison item he had ever seen disguised as a ’thank you’ gift.

"She seems nice," Casanova noted and adjusted his collar.

"She just handed me a localized nuclear weapon disguised as a flower," Dante said flatly.

Casanova blinked. "Wait, what?"

Dante carefully placed the [Bloom of Decay] into a highly isolated slot within his infinite void inventory to make absolutely sure it didn’t touch his consumables.

"This server is full of psychopaths," Dante muttered.

He looked at the crowd celebrating in the Outpost.

Silas was plotting against him. The Legion of Blades wanted his head on a pike.

And now the number one Hidden Class player in the world had just tried to casually assassinate him with a flower.

He needed to log out. His real-world body was rapidly approaching its absolute limits.

"I am disconnecting for the night," Dante told the bard.

"Wait, Boss! Where are you going?" Casanova panicked. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Go steal some kisses," Dante said and pulled up his logout menu.

He didn’t wait for the bard to complain.

He hit the disconnect button and plunged back into the cold and silent darkness of the real world.