"Next wave, please!" Zero exclaid.
Suddenly the ground under his soles gave that low pulse again, just enough to make the dirt shiver around the bodies of the felled beasts.
The air ahead thickened, he felt it before he even saw it — the bigger pull in his chest, the way the Fragnt almost vibrated against his palm.
When the thing stepped through, the noise it made was a soft scrape of rusted steel dragging through damp earth, like a shovel biting into gravel.
It was tall, easily half a head over the last hobgoblin, but what made Zero’s grin tick wider under the battered visor was the shape of its armor, it was indeed broken, but still layered like soone had taken the bones of a proper Death Knight and dipped it in leftover Tier 1 garbage.
Plates hung crooked over a chainmail hauberk that barely hid the hollow gaps at its ribs and shoulders. In its hand dragged a two-handed sword that looked half-welded to the bones of its gauntlet, every step leaving a clean scar in the mossy floor.
Zero tilted his head slightly, the leather of his cracked helt creaking at the hinge, and let out a low hum that turned into a muffled laugh. ’Oh, a Death Knight, huh? Sobody’s pulling out the festival boss. Not bad, not bad at all... but, this guy doesn’t fit with the whole... forest the so... eh, who cares, I’m just nitpicking."
He lowered the Fragnt to his side, letting its edge scrape a line of sparks off a flat rock as he bounced lightly on his heels.
The air tasted stale, wet tal and the strong lingering sll of blood in the air that almost tasted like expired tal, if that’s even a thing.
He could almost feel the feed outside turning from "look at that clown" to that hush that always crawled up a crowd’s spine when they realized the underdog might actually know what the hell he’s doing.
The Death Knight didn’t waste ti. It lifted its head — a skull mostly hidden under a dented helt — and made a low, creaking noise that felt like a laugh dragged through a coffin lid.
Then it lunged forward with a burst of speed that clipped the edge of Zero’s grin right off his face.
The first swing ca down diagonal, a two-handed arc that threatened to split him open shoulder to hip.
He bent low, boots slipping over damp roots as he pivoted out of the way, Fragnt sliding up just in ti to catch the flat of the blade.
Sparks scattered between them, the impact shuddering up his arm all the way to his teeth.
"Damn," Zero muttered under his breath, voice buzzing around the helt’s cracked seal. He dropped to one knee, pushed off the weight of the blade, and circled to the Knight’s exposed flank.
He tried to bury the Fragnt under the creature’s backplate, but the armor gave just enough that his blade skipped wide, screeching against old tal.
The Knight spun with that rotten grace, sword whipping back around so close he had to throw himself backward, boots carving trenches in the moss.
His ribs caught the edge of a root, jarring the air from his lungs in a short, rasping bark.
The Death Knight advanced with that slow, steady nace, boots pressing deep into the earth. Its sword scraped up, ready to bring down another chop, but Zero was already moving again.
He pushed up from the ground, letting Phantom Stride kick his legs into gear just long enough to blur sideways, Fragnt catching the Knight’s sword, arm mid-swing.
He felt the vibration of old bone and rotted muscle under its blade, but it still didn’t break the swing clean.
The Knight slamd the hilt down toward his head, forcing him to twist out of range so hard he felt the helt rattle loose against his cheek.
They circled each other for what felt like an entire minute, the clearing thumping with each heavy impact — Fragnt against rusted steel, gauntlet against bark when the Knight missed a swing. Caught his ass looking goofy.
Zero ducked under a brutal horizontal slash that sliced an entire fern in half behind him, boots grinding for traction as he lunged forward, Fragnt driving for the Knight’s exposed hip plate.
The blade punched through the chainmail gap this ti, biting deep enough that the Knight let out a harsh, rattling hiss, a sound like graveyard wind scraping through old stone.
It twisted, forced him to wrench the Fragnt back out in a wet snap that spattered his boots.
The Knight retaliated with a heavy shoulder slam that knocked him half-sideways into a trunk.
His helt caught on a low branch, visor cracking even further so that one side swung crooked. He tasted blood at the corner of his lip and spat it out with a soft chuckle. ’Okay... that was lowkey smart. Not gonna lie.’
But the thing lumbered forward again, sword lifted high, and Zero grinned despite the throb under his collarbone.
He flicked the Fragnt into a high guard, boots crunching bloody leaves as he shifted just outside the arc of that final swing.
He let the blade co down, waited until he could feel the weight of it passing close enough to part his hair, and then slipped Phantom Stride behind the Knight’s hunched spine.
He slamd the Fragnt up under its chin, straight into the gap where bone t rusted helt, driving it deep until he felt the final shudder work through the Death Knight’s fra.
The creature exhaled that lasted a second, blade slipping from its gauntlet and thunking into the earth at his feet. Zero twisted the Fragnt once for good asure before kicking the corpse sideways.
It landed in a ssy slump that felt oddly satisfying, a final hush draping the clearing in soft system static.
The ping hit imdiately.
[EXP 50]
He flicked the system window open, chest still tight from the adrenaline that hadn’t quite burned off yet.
[Level: 11 — EXP: 82 / 110]
Zero let out a breath that fogged the cracked visor, his grin wide enough to make his cheeks ache as he nudged the fallen Knight’s helt with the tip of his boot. ’That was lowkey hard... but goddammit, I just know this sh*t looked sick. Gonna look great on the highlight reel. Hope they caught my good side... oh wait, ALL OF MY FACE IS MY GOOD SIDE HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!’’
... who’s gonna tell bro that he’s wearing a helt? Nahhh. Let’s let him have his monts to show off his stupidity
He adjusted the helt back onto his head, wiped the back of his glove across his mouth, and angled himself toward the exit swirl waiting at the far edge of the clearing.
"Zero chance, huh? Not today," he muttered, voice warm and just a little smug as he started walking.
The Gate swirl blinked out behind him with a soft, final hiss of air, and for a second it felt like the entire plaza forgot how to breathe.
The scoreboard overhead crackled, numbers rearranging themselves one blocky pixel at a ti until they settled on the single na nobody had taken seriously ten minutes ago.
[FINAL WAVE CLEAR — CONTESTANT: ZERO]
[TOTAL TI: 9 MINUTES 47 SECONDS]
[FINAL SCORE: ???]
The PA system stuttered once, the announcer’s voice trying to claw its way back to professional while half the crowd just stood there with their mouths hanging open like they’d forgotten how noise worked.
"Uh... wave five complete — contestant Zero has cleared the final wave in... nine minutes and forty-seven seconds." He didn’t even try to hide the squeak at the end.
The front rows went dead silent for exactly one heartbeat, and then the entire plaza cracked open into a roar that felt like soone had dropped a live mic into a blender.
Half the rookies who’d been talking the loudest now slapped each other’s shoulders like they’d just watched their class clown pull off an actual heist.
A couple kids pointed up at the big screen replay that looped Zero’s final kill on the Death Knight, a blurry silhouette in a shredded cloak popping in and out of view.
Luckily for this dumbass, his cloak managed to hide his crop top.
Kenji had both hands braced on the guardrail, eyes wide as dinner plates. "Bro... we just watched a walking solo the whole thing."
Hiro, still clutching his crushed snack bag, looked like he’d seen a ghost and lost a bet to it. "He was built like a Halloween prop and then... anyways, did you see that last swing?! How many skills does that guy have?"
Leo didn’t say much, he kinda just sucked in a deep breath, eyes flicking from the big screen to the real deal striding out from under the Gate swirl. "Zero drip my ass," he muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching like he wasn’t sure if he should laugh or bow.
Zero stepped onto the cracked concrete with the sa casual, half-bored vibe he’d carried in.
The Aged Blade Fragnt rested easy across his shoulder, the tip trailing a few stray flecks of sothing dark against what was left of his shredded cloak.
His helt visor swung a little crooked where the crack had split it wider, his boots looked like they’d been soaked through twice and never dried out. And let’s not talk about the crop top.
But it didn’t matter. He didn’t flinch when the crowd tried to surge closer, didn’t so much as glance up at the big screen. He just made a straight line for the payout booth wedged under the plaza’s floodlights.
The payout clerk, a kid who looked like he should still be doing textbook check-ins for the Association’s rookie training, held out a chit with trembling fingers. "H-Here— uh, that’s... that’s the thousand credits. Congrats, sir. M-Mister Zero."
Zero tilted his cracked helt just enough for the clerk to catch a glint of teeth behind the battered visor.
He slipped the chit into his cloak, flicked the Fragnt blade back to his inventory, and gave a short, dismissive nod like the entire performance was worth exactly what he’d co to collect — shopping money and nothing else.
"Thanks. Keep the caras rolling next ti," he said, voice calm and low. Then he turned on his heel before the clerk could even blink, boots carrying him out through the maze of stunned onlookers without so much as a look back.
Behind him, the plaza buzzed with a rising tide of confused yells and new theories already catching fire.
"Who the hell was that?"
"Did he even register?"
"Was that a solo run or a stunt team?!"
Soone laughed, soone else muttered about highlight reels, soone else was already pulling up their HunterNet feed to see if the rumor mill had a na to pin to the mask yet.
Inside his helt, Zero felt the corner of his mouth twitch as he tucked the credit chit deeper into the folds of his cloak, the warmth of that easy score sitting heavy against his ribs.
’Zero drip my ass. Just see how ny drip will look like soon when I use this shopping money, b*tch.’
A few ters away, half-hidden behind the payout tent, Theodore stood frozen under the scoreboard’s flickering replay, eyes still stuck on the final ti stamp he knew he couldn’t touch. He ran a gloved thumb over the crumpled edge of Lea’s note in his pocket, that quiet sigh slipping out before he could even swallow it down.
"S—So... more work for this month, I guess."
End of Chapter 28.
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ALT SYSTEM — USER PROFILE: ZERO
Level: 11
EXP: 82 / 110
Next Reward: 10 Available Stat Points
Global System Tracking: DISABLED
World Rank Association: UNLINKED
Stats:
STR: 8 | AGI: 8 (Affinity) | VIT: 3 | DEX: 1 | INT: 7 | WIS: 0
[Available Stat Points: 3]
[Derived Stat — MANA: 35 / 35]
Skills:
[Crimson Slash Lv. 1]
[Phantom Stride Lv.1]
[Blade Control Lv.1]
[Parry Timing Lv.1]
[Reflex Sync Lv.1] (Passive Skill)
[Combat Awareness Lv.2] (Passive Skill)
[Skill Fusion nu: Active]
[Dev Tree: Tier 0 Access Granted]
[Developer Node – Fusion Core Anchor: Active]
[Skill Slot Available — Unassigned]
Equipnt:
Aged Blade Fragnt (??? Rarity) (Bound)
Goblin Dagger
Spiked Boar Tusk Shard
Lightweight Chest Padding
Boots of Basic Mobility
Fingerless Gloves (Basic)
Starter Cloak: Faded Black
Training Ring ( 1 VIT)
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