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

Blood sprayed across the brick walls. Gary’s remaining lung collapsed as he fell to the concrete, his vision fading to black as the Barghest happily began crunching on his severed limb.

Scenes of absolute slaughter were playing out on every single street corner across the globe. The transition was a nightmare. The streets were quickly paved with half-eaten corpses.

Thousands of miles away, Sebastian stood on the towering obsidian ramparts of Sanctuary. He watched the red sky slowly shift as the digital overlay permanently locked onto reality.

”Well,” Sebastian muttered, rolling his shoulders. ”I guess the free trial has officially expired.”

Beside him, Valerie was gripping her oak staff. Her eyes darted around as she read the dozen blue notification windows crowding her vision.

”This is insane. It’s actually here. My interface... it feels different. It doesn’t feel like a headset anymore. It feels like it’s inside my brain.”

”That’s because it is, Princess,” Sebastian replied, opening his own status screen. ”We are all walking lines of code now with meat wrapped around us. Welcome to the Ethereal Plane.”

Sebastian focused on his own stats. He was expecting to see his health pool and mana capacity expand after the ridiculous amount of experience he had hoovered up from the World Bosses and the Void Titan.

Instead, a heavy golden padlock icon hovered over his level.

[Name: Sebastian (Zero)]

[Class: Drifter]

[Level: 50]

[Status: MAXIMUM MORTAL LIMIT REACHED]

Sebastian frowned, tapping the glowing padlock. A secondary window popped up.

[To progress beyond Level 50, a player must shed their mortal shell. You must Ascend. Seek the Divine Inheritance to shatter the cap.]

”Son of a bitch,” Sebastian sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

’Of course there’s a damn level cap,’ Sebastian thought to himself. ’The universe literally ends, and I still have to deal with arbitrary progression bottlenecks.’

”What’s wrong?” Valerie asked, dismissing her own screens.

”I’m maxed out for the current patch,” Sebastian grumbled. ”Level 50 is the ceiling until I find a way to ascend to a Demigod tier. Which means my physical stats are temporarily hard-locked. I can’t just casually arm-wrestle a continent anymore until I break this lock.”

Wraith materialized from the shadows near the stairwell. The Level 25 Assassin looked completely unfazed by the end of the world.

”Boss. The outer perimeter sensors are picking up massive movement. The survivor camps outside the city ruins are panicking. The local comms networks are flooded. Everyone is looking for a safe zone. They are going to swarm our gates by nightfall.”

Sebastian looked out over the ruined industrial district. Beyond the five-kilometer golden dome of Sanctuary, the world was burning.

Millions of terrified, newly integrated Level 1 players were running for their lives from Level 5 and Level 10 monsters.

They needed order. And they needed to know exactly who owned this territory.

”We can’t take everyone,” Sebastian stated coldly. ”We take the useful ones. We need to set the ground rules before they start banging on my front door.”

He reached into his bottomless inventory and pulled out a cheap moldy skill book he had found in a garbage pile during his tutorial days.

[Basic Voice Amplification]

[Tier: 0 Utility Spell]

It was a spell used by annoying bards in taverns to make their lutes sound slightly louder.

”Time for a public service announcement,” Sebastian smirked.

He crushed the book in his fist. The grey motes of light sank into his skin.

[Action Registered: Cast Basic Voice Amplification.]

[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000.]

The system shrieked as the massive multiplier forced a useless parlor trick through thousands of simulated evolutions in a microsecond.

[Basic Voice Amplification leveled up to 10/10! Max Level Reached!]

[Evolution Requirement Met. Basic Voice Amplification evolves to Tier 1: Sonic Boom!]

[Proficiency Overflow Detected! Sonic Boom evolves to Tier 3: Continental Echo!]

[WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached. Acoustic Law Unlocked.]

[Continental Echo evolves to Conceptual Law: Voice of the Sovereign.]

A heavy terrifying weight settled into Sebastian’s throat. He didn’t just feel like he had a microphone. He felt like his vocal cords were directly wired into the foundational bedrock of the planet itself.

He stepped up to the edge of the rampart. He didn’t shout. He didn’t yell. He just spoke in a calm deadpan voice.

”Listen up.”

BOOM!

The sound did not travel through the air. The [Voice of the Sovereign] bypassed the atmosphere entirely. Sebastian’s voice echoed directly inside the skulls of every single surviving human across the entire North American continent.

In a ruined bunker in Texas, a group of survivors fell to their knees, clutching their ears as the terrifying metallic resonance rattled their brains. In the streets of Montreal, people looked up at the sky in pure horror.

The sheer mana pressure of the conceptual law was so intense that players below Level 5 instantly felt a warm trickle of blood running from their noses. The acoustic weight was physically oppressive.

”This is an automated message from Sanctuary management,” Sebastian’s voice rumbled in the minds of millions. ”The tutorial is over. The old world is dead. If you are hearing this, congratulations, you survived the patch.”

Sebastian leaned against the dark stone wall, looking out at his glowing barrier.

”Sanctuary is currently taking applications,” he continued. ”But we are not a charity. We are a business. Our gates are open to Crafters, Blacksmiths, Builders, and Healers. If you can build a wall or fix a severed artery, you get a bed and clean water.”

He let the silence stretch for a three-second beat, letting the desperation fully set in.

H

”If you are a combat class, a Warrior, a Mage, a Rogue, don’t come knocking with an empty resume. You want inside my walls? You prove your worth in blood. Bring me monster cores. Bring me high-tier loot. You pay the entry fee, or you stay outside and become spider food.”

He pushed himself off the wall and turned his back on the wasteland.

”Welcome to the Ethereal Plane. Have a nice day.”

Sebastian cut the spell. The massive oppressive weight lifted from the continent.

He looked at Valerie and Wraith. Both of them were wiping a tiny drop of blood from their nostrils. Even standing right next to him, the ambient pressure of a god-tier acoustic law was enough to pop a few capillaries.

”Well,” Sebastian said, dusting off his hands. ”That should clear out the spam mail. Wraith, tell the Golems to open the intake valves. Let’s get to work.”