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

The Grand Arena had been reduced to a quiet graveyard. It was completely filled with shattered marble and violently disconnected avatars.

Sebastian stood right in the center of the ruin. His black leather coat flapped gently in the artificial breeze. His silver tinged eyes were firmly locked on the towering pile of rubble where the final challenger stood.

The Apostle!

Up close, the player did not even look human anymore. The avatar was wrapped in a tattered dark cloak that seemed to absorb all the light around it. But it was the skin underneath that made Sebastian turn his stomach.

The physical form of the Apostle was constantly shifting. It broke apart into jagged strings of black and neon purple code before snapping back together with a wet sound. It looked like a rubber band made of rotting meat.

”You look like a walking 404 error,” Sebastian called out. His voice echoed across the silent sands.

”Seriously, Have you tried turning yourself off and on again?”

The Apostle tilted his hooded head. When he smiled, his jaw unhinged slightly too far. It revealed rows of teeth that flickered between human enamel and jagged metallic static.

”The Anomaly.” The voice of the Apostle was a horrifying chorus of overlapping audio tracks. It sounded exactly like three different people speaking at once through a blown out speaker.

”The servers whispered about a ghost in the code. A little rat chewing on the wires of our grand design.”

”I prefer exterminator,” Sebastian replied dryly.

He did not draw a weapon. He just crossed his arms confidently.

”Let me guess. You let a Void Parasite set up shop in your frontal lobe for some shiny admin privileges? You sold out your own species before the apocalypse even properly started. That is a new record for pathetic.”

The Apostle let out a laugh that sounded like grinding gears and wet static.

”Species?” the glitching horror mocked. He spread his arms wide.

”Humanity is just fuel, Drifter. You think this is a game? You think this tournament is for glory? The Void Gods are hungry. The dimensional barriers are heavy. To break them down, they need raw concentrated soul data.”

The Apostle pointed a twitching pixelated finger at the invisible magical dome. The dome separated the arena floor from the stands. Behind that barrier, one hundred thousand spectators sat in stunned paralyzed silence. It was a mix of high tier NPCs, wealthy nobles, and terrified beta testers.

”And look at this absolute feast,” the Apostle hissed. His eyes burned with a sickly purple light.

”Thousands of the strongest and most arrogant souls on the server, all gathered in one convenient little bowl. I did not come here to win a City Core. I came here to open the door.”

”Yeah, about that,” Sebastian sighed. He rubbed the back of his neck.

”I kind of need that Core. I have a massive warehouse in the real world that is currently completely unprotected against giant invisible spiders. So, I am going to have to ask you to politely go screw yourself.”

The static smile of the Apostle vanished. ”You think your little parlor tricks matter against a God?”

”I think my parlor tricks are going to give you a very bad day,” Sebastian deadpanned.

”Let us see you joke when the meat grinder turns on you!” the Apostle roared.

The glitching player raised both of his hands toward the fake digital sky. He did not cast a standard Ethereal Plane spell. He bypassed the magic system of the game entirely. He tapped directly into the corrupted backdoor he had been given.

[System Alert: Unauthorized Access Detected.]

[Warning: Administrator Override Initiated.]

The blood that soaked the arena sands suddenly began to defy gravity. It was thousands of gallons of digital gore left behind from the systematic slaughter Sebastian delivered to the noble factions.

SQUELCH. SQUELCH.

Droplets of crimson liquid floated upward. They vibrated with a sickening low frequency hum. The blood gathered in the air and swirled into a massive condensed sphere of pure agonizing sacrifice right above the head of the Apostle.

It was a blood ritual!

He was using the sheer volume of player deaths to fuel a command that the server was desperately trying to reject.

”Admin Command: Mass Summoning!” the Apostle shrieked. His voice tore the audio engine in half.

The sphere of blood violently detonated. It did not splash. It completely fractured space.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Dozens of massive jagged rifts tore open in the air around the ruined temples. They did not lead to the real world. They led straight to the darkest and most broken dungeons the developers had ever coded.

”Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Sebastian muttered. He dropped his arms to his sides.

Massive clawed hands reached out from the rifts.

A Level 45 Abyssal Chimera dragged itself onto the sand. It was a horrifying amalgamation of a lion, a goat, and a rotting dragon. It dripped with venom that instantly melted the marble beneath its paws.

Next came three Level 50 Bone Goliaths. They were towering skeletons wielding massive iron anchors on chains. Their eye sockets burned with blue soul fire.

Then came the Brood Mothers. They were giant swollen arachnids with human faces. They screamed like crying children as they birthed swarms of highly aggressive explosive tick monsters.

Within seconds, the empty arena was packed with a horde of over fifty Elite Boss Mobs!

Any single one of these creatures would normally require a coordinated forty man raid of heavily geared players to bring down. Now, an entire army of them was roaring, hissing, and stomping the ground. Their collective aggro was completely unchained.

But the Apostle was not done.

He pointed his glitching finger toward the sky. ”Admin Command: Target Designation Spectator Wards!”

A beam of corrupted purple energy shot from his hand. It struck the massive magical dome protecting the audience.

BZZZT!

The invincible barrier flickered. It turned from a bright comforting blue to a sickly dying yellow.

Up in the stands, the silence finally broke. One hundred thousand people realized they were no longer watching a show. They were locked in a cage with a horde of starving apex predators, and the locks were melting.

”THE WARD IS FAILING!” an NPC noble screamed. He dropped his wine glass.

”Log out! Everyone log out!” a beta tester yelled. He furiously tapped his wrist interface.

”FUCK! Combat lock! We are in combat lock! I cannot leave!”

Absolute unhinged panic erupted. The stands turned into a riot of trampling bodies, crying players, and frantic useless spellcasting. People desperately tried to blast their way out of the pocket dimension.

Down on the floor, Valerie was standing near the eastern ruins. The Arcane Valkyrie had her staff raised. Her blue eyes were wide with genuine terror as an Abyssal Chimera locked its gaze onto her. She had maxed stamina, but against a Level 45 Elite, she was just an appetizer.

Wraith materialized from the shadows near her. His twin daggers were drawn. Even the stoic Assassin looked extremely tense.

”Boss,” Wraith buzzed over the localized comms. ”That is a lot of health bars. We cannot fight that.”

Sebastian looked at the horde. The ground was physically shaking from the weight of fifty Elite Bosses marching forward. The sound was deafening. The Apostle stood safely behind the wall of monsters and laughed his distorted mechanical laugh.

”Kill them all!” the Apostle commanded. ”Feast on their data! Tear this arena to the ground!”

The monsters charged. The Bone Goliaths swung their massive anchors and shattered the remaining temples into dust. The Brood Mothers spat streams of acidic webbing toward the stands. It sizzled against the weakening spectator barrier.

Sebastian took a deep steadying breath. He did not pull his rusty dagger. He did not even drop into a fighting stance.

He just looked at his hands.

”You know,” Sebastian said softly. His voice was perfectly calm amidst the apocalyptic noise.

”I really did not want to use the heavy stuff yet. It gives me a massive headache.”

He raised both of his hands.

”But I guess fifty bosses is a good excuse to test the physics engine!”

Sebastian closed his eyes. He completely ignored the towering Chimera leaping directly toward his face. He tapped into the deepest and darkest well of his glitched mana pool. He was about to introduce the Void to a completely different kind of monster.