Awakening a 10,000x Skill Proficiency Multiplier in the Apocalypse

The Valley of Cinders was a ruined mess of crushed armor and flattened egos.

The Gravity Domain had done its job entirely too well. The Vanguard of the Golden Lions and Crimson Skulls lay pinned to the dirt, their health bars hovering agonizingly close to zero.

But Baron_K was not a normal player. He was a whale! He was a trust fund kid who had dumped half his real world inheritance into the game’s micro transactions before the server even fully stabilized.

Down in the mud, Baron_K managed to twitch his fingers. He accessed his premium inventory.

A golden light flashed around his crushed body, dispelling the lingering effects of the gravity well and instantly restoring his health to full.

It was a single use, legendary tier revival token that cost more than Sebastian’s entire apartment complex.

Baron_K scrambled to his feet, his face twisted into a mask of pure humiliation. He looked at his flattened guildmates, then up at the towering black walls of Sanctuary.

”You think you’ve won?!” Baron_K’s voice cracked, echoing hysterically across the valley.

”You think a cheap gravity trick makes you a god?! I’m going to tear down your fucking walls brick by brick!”

He pulled a massive glowing red summoning crystal from his inventory and slammed it into the dirt.

CRACK!

The earth violently trembled, far worse than when the walls had rendered. A massive pentagram of dark crimson light scorched itself into the ash.

From the depths of the summoning circle, a true nightmare pulled itself into the server’s reality.

It was a Level 40 Siege Beast. It took the rough shape of a rhinoceros, but it was easily the size of a three story building. Its skin was completely replaced by thick interlocking plates of dark steel. A massive glowing battering ram of a horn protruded from its snout, sparking with explosive siege magic.

The beast let out a deafening metallic bellow that physically shook the dust off Sanctuary’s newly forged walls.

Standing on the high ramparts of the citadel, Sebastian looked down at the mechanical monstrosity.

He had his hands resting casually on the obsidian parapet. He didn’t look terrified at all. He looked mildly annoyed.

”Well, that’s a big cow,” Sebastian muttered, leaning over the edge.

”Galleon! Tell me you actually built the thing, or I’m going to have to go down there and punch it to death.”

”Have some faith, boss!” a raspy and excited voice echoed from behind him.

Sebastian turned. Galleon the dwarf was standing next to an absolute abomination of engineering. The dwarf had ripped up half the polished stone of the eastern rampart to expose the raw glowing blue veins of the Leyline Node below.

Hooked into those veins was the Mana Conducting Railgun.

It didn’t look like a sleek futuristic weapon. It looked like a mad scientist had taped two massive iron girders together, wrapped them in glowing copper wire, and slapped a highly unstable induction crystal at the base. It hummed with a terrifying erratic vibration.

”It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Galleon wiped a tear from his soot stained cheek. ”The induction chamber is completely unregulated. The safety protocols? Ignored. The thermal exhaust? Nonexistent. If you miss, it might just blow up the entire wall.”

”Comforting,” Sebastian said, stepping up to the rear of the massive weapon. ”Load it.”

Galleon practically giggled. He hoisted a solid cylindrical slug of compressed tungsten looted from the scrap of the Crimson Skull tanks and slammed it into the breech.

CLANG.

Down below, Baron_K pointed his sword at the heavy titanium gates of Sanctuary.

”Crush it! Leave nothing but dust!” the guild leader screamed.

The Siege Rhino dug its massive steel hooves into the earth. Steam erupted from its exhaust vents. It lowered its glowing explosive horn and charged. The sheer kinetic force of its sprint carved deep trenches into the valley floor.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Every step was a localized earthquake.

”Alright, stubby,” Sebastian said, placing his hands flat against the induction crystal at the base of the railgun. ”Let’s see what happens when we give this thing unlimited juice.”

Sebastian didn’t just cast a spell into the machine. He opened his digital mana pool and let the system’s broken math take over. Because of his Chaos Talent, Forbidden Alchemy, he had effectively infinite mana regeneration as long as he had cheap herbs in his inventory.

He forcefully bypassed the weapon’s standard charging limits and dumped raw unfiltered conceptual energy directly into the rails.

The railgun didn’t hum. It shrieked.

The copper wires glowed blindingly white. The surrounding air instantly ionized.

”Boss, it’s gonna melt! It’s gonna fucking melt!” Galleon yelled, covering his eyes as the light grew too intense.

”Let it,” Sebastian said coldly. He aligned the crosshairs perfectly with the charging metallic behemoth.

He pulled the heavy iron lever.

SNAP!

There was no explosion. There was only the sound of the atmosphere being violently ripped in half.

A beam of pure blinding blue light erupted from the barrel. It moved at Mach seven. It was not a projectile, it was a localized erasure of matter!

The blue beam struck the Siege Rhino dead center in its heavily armored skull. The Level 40 beast didn’t even have time to register the impact.

The tungsten slug, propelled by an apocalyptic amount of mana, punched straight through the steel plating, through the digital brain, and out the back of the monster.

But the kinetic energy didn’t stop there.

The beam continued its trajectory, carving a massive glowing trench of perfectly smooth glass straight through the center of the allied army’s formation. It vaporized the remaining standing guild members, melted the ash, and finally exploded against the distant canyon wall, collapsing a thousand tons of rock in a massive avalanche.

The silence that followed was deafening.

The front half of the Siege Rhino’s momentum carried it forward for a few feet before its body simply split in half.

SQUELCH.

The two massive chunks of melted steel and cooked meat collapsed to the side, spilling boiling black blood across the dirt.

Sebastian let go of the railgun. The two iron girders of the barrel were glowing cherry red, drooping slightly from the catastrophic heat.

”Told you it would melt the rails,” Galleon coughed, patting the smoking machine affectionately. ”Best damn gun I ever built.”

Down in the valley, Baron_K was on his knees. He was staring at the bisected and smoking ruin of his multi million credit trump card.

The few remaining Golden Lions and Crimson Skulls who had been outside the blast radius were completely frozen. They had just watched a piece of player built artillery essentially execute God.

”Open the gates,” Sebastian called down to Valerie, who was watching from the courtyard monitors.

The heavy titanium doors groaned open.

Sebastian didn’t jump down. He walked down the massive stone steps and strolled out into the valley. He navigated the cooling glassy trench left by his weapon, his boots crunching softly against the vitrified earth.

He stopped directly in front of the kneeling Baron_K.

The guild leader didn’t look up. He was hyperventilating, his eyes locked on the smoking guts of the rhino.

”You know, Baron,” Sebastian said, his voice casual, completely devoid of the booming forced epic tone most players used. ”You guys really suck at taking a hint.”

Baron_K slowly raised his head. The arrogance was completely gone. The rich kid was finally experiencing the absolute crushing reality of someone who didn’t care about his money or his status.

”You’re... you’re a dev. You have to be a dev,” Baron_K stammered, his voice trembling. ”That gun... that wasn’t in the patch notes.”

”I’m just a guy who likes his peace and quiet,” Sebastian sighed. He squatted down so he was eye level with the terrified guild master. He rested his arms on his knees.

”Here is the situation,” Sebastian said calmly. ”You brought an army to my house. You scuffed up my lawn. You annoyed me. In the real world, if you lose a war, you pay reparations. Welcome to the new world order, kid.”

”I don’t have any more gold!” Baron_K choked out, tears actually forming in his eyes. ”I spent it all on the beast! I’m broke!”

”I don’t want your digital gold. It’s going to be completely worthless in a few months anyway,” Sebastian smiled. It was a cold predatory expression. ”I want real world resources.”

Baron_K blinked, utterly confused. ”Real world... what?”

Sebastian pulled a piece of parchment from his inventory and slapped it against Baron_K’s chest plate. It had the real world coordinates of Warehouse 4 in the industrial district.

”You own a logistics company in the physical world. Your dad’s shipping empire,” Sebastian said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper.

”I want six heavy duty diesel generators. I want three pallets of military grade antibiotics. I want enough non perishable food to feed an army for a decade. And I want it delivered to those coordinates by tomorrow night.”

Baron_K stared at the parchment. ”You’re extorting my real life assets? For a video game?!”

Sebastian leaned in close, his silver tinged eyes glowing with the dark unhinged energy of a man who had seen the apocalypse.

”It’s not a game, Baron. You’re paying a War Tax. If those trucks aren’t at my warehouse by tomorrow midnight, I will personally hunt down every single character associated with your guild.”

”I will camp your spawns until your levels drop to zero. I will make sure your gaming experience is a living breathing hell. And when the sky finally tears open... I’ll come find you in the real world.”

Baron_K swallowed hard. The absolute unshakeable certainty in Sebastian’s voice bypassed the game’s logic and struck right at the player’s core. He didn’t know how this ragged Drifter knew who he was in the real world, but he wasn’t going to call his bluff.

”Okay,” Baron_K whispered, his hands shaking as he gripped the parchment. ”Okay. Tomorrow night. I’ll send the trucks.”

”Good boy,” Sebastian patted his metal cheek. ”Now take your trash and get off my property.”

Sebastian stood up and turned his back on the ruined army. He walked back toward the towering black gates of Sanctuary, leaving the surviving elite players to quietly and shamefully limp away.

The siege was over. The extortion was successful. Now, it was time to actually prepare for the end of the world.