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

The Neon Lotus didn’t look like a high-end black market hub. From the outside, it looked like an abandoned water treatment facility. The heavy steel door was covered in graffiti and rust, entirely unmarked save for a faintly glowing pink lotus flower etched into the metal frame.

Gwen knocked on the door in a rapid, complex rhythm.

A tiny viewport slid open, and a single, glowing red cybernetic eye peered out at them.

”We’re closed,” a synthesized voice buzzed through the heavy steel.

”Tell Vex that Seattle is here,” Gwen said flatly. ”And tell him I brought a whale.”

The red eye lingered on Sebastian’s ragged, blood-stained coat for a second before the viewport snapped shut. A moment later, the heavy deadbolts disengaged with a loud sound.

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK.

The door swung open.

”Welcome to the Lotus,” a heavily armed bouncer grunted, stepping aside.

Sebastian and Gwen stepped into the club. The sensory assault was immediate.

WUB-WUB-WUB.

The bass of the localized electronic music was so heavy it physically vibrated the floorboards. The club was a sprawling, subterranean cavern illuminated by sweeping lasers of neon pink and toxic green.

The patrons were a diverse mix of dangerous individuals. Sebastian spotted high-level corporate assassins in sleek stealth suits drinking alongside massive, four-armed alien warlords. Everyone here was a predator, and everyone here had money.

”Stay close,” Gwen yelled over the pounding music. ”Don’t stare at anyone. Don’t touch anything.”

”I’m a model tourist,” Sebastian replied, his deadpan eyes scanning the room. He was already calculating the threat levels of the surrounding NPCs. Most of them were hovering around Level 60. Dangerous to a normal player, but essentially toddlers to his Level 60 Demigod stats.

Gwen led him through the crowded dance floor, pushing past a group of heavily modified elves, and approached a raised VIP booth in the back corner of the club.

Sitting behind a pristine glass desk was Vex.

The broker was a bizarre, horrifying fusion of organic and digital parts. He had the upper torso of a human, but his lower half was entirely replaced by a hovering, anti-gravity chassis. He had four arms, all of them currently typing furiously on floating holographic keyboards.

”Seattle!” Vex cheered, his voice a smooth, charming purr that didn’t match his grotesque appearance at all. ”I thought the Iron Wraiths got liquidated! Word on the street is your uncle took over and you caught a bad case of death.”

”Rumors are exaggerated,” Gwen said, leaning against the glass desk. ”I’m independent now. And I brought a client who needs a severe currency exchange.”

Vex stopped typing. He crossed two of his arms and used the other two to adjust his glowing, monocle-like ocular implant. He looked Sebastian up and down, taking in the dirty boots, the torn coat, and the cracked white half-mask.

”This is the whale?” Vex chuckled, a condescending sound. ”He looks like he just crawled out of a compactor. I don’t buy scrap metal, Seattle. I deal in premium assets.”

Sebastian didn’t get angry. He didn’t sigh. He just stepped up to the desk, pulled his right hand out of his pocket, and opened his glitched inventory.

He needed local currency. Server 112 ran on Neon-Chips, a highly secure, encrypted digital currency backed by the corporate guilds. His fifty thousand gold coins from Earth were completely useless here.

He bypassed his god-tier weapons and his reality-breaking runes. He scrolled down to the crafting materials he had harvested from the frozen corpse of the Level 50 Frost Monarch.

”I hear you like premium assets,” Sebastian said.

He pulled his hand out of his inventory and slammed a single item onto the glass desk.

CLINK!

The ambient temperature in the VIP booth instantly dropped twenty degrees. A thin layer of white frost rapidly spread across the pristine glass of the desk.

Resting on the table was a Pristine Frost Scale. It was the size of a dinner plate, composed of flawless, glowing blue crystal that radiated pure, unadulterated elemental cold.

Vex literally choked on his own spit.

The music in the club kept pounding, but the broker was completely frozen. His four hands hovered uselessly in the air as his ocular implant aggressively scanned the item.

[Item: Pristine Frost Scale]

[Origin: Level 50 World Boss (Velkhana)]

[Status: Pure Ethereal Magic]

In a server dominated by technology and cybernetics, pure, high-tier Ethereal magic was incredibly rare. A crafting material from a Level 50 World Boss was the equivalent of putting a flawless, ten-carat diamond on the table.

”Holy mother of code,” Vex whispered, his smooth voice cracking. He reached out with a trembling mechanical finger, pulling it back instantly as the sheer cold bit into his sensors. ”Where... how did you get this? This is a mythic-tier drop!”

”I found it,” Sebastian lied smoothly. ”Now. What’s the exchange rate for shiny blue rocks in this city?”

Vex’s corporate instincts violently rebooted. He swallowed hard and immediately tried to regain his leverage.

”It’s... it’s a nice piece,” Vex lied, waving a hand dismissively. ”But the market for raw elemental materials is slow right now. Everyone wants cybernetics. I’ll take a massive risk holding onto this. Best I can do is fifty thousand Neon-Chips.”

Gwen snorted. ”Fifty thousand? Vex, you cheap bastard, that scale is worth at least...”

Sebastian held up a hand, silencing her.

He didn’t yell. He didn’t threaten the broker with magic.

Sebastian simply placed his hand flat on the edge of the thick, bulletproof glass desk. He looked Vex directly in the eye and tapped into his twenty-percent biological synchronization.

He squeezed his fingers.

SCREEECH!

CRACK!

The supposedly indestructible, heavily reinforced glass violently spider-webbed. Sebastian effortlessly crushed the edge of the desk in his grip, turning the solid material into fine, glittering powder that drifted down onto the floor.

He didn’t break eye contact.

”Let’s try that math again, Vex,” Sebastian whispered, his voice dropping into a dark, terrifying hum. ”I am new to the city. I am very tired. And I am entirely out of patience. Give me a real number, or I’m going to start negotiating with your internal organs.”

Vex stared at the crushed glass. He looked at Sebastian’s hand, entirely unharmed by the razor-sharp shards. The broker realized, with absolute, terrifying clarity, that the ragged man in front of him wasn’t a scavenger. He was a monster wearing a disguise.

”F-five hundred thousand,” Vex stammered, frantically pulling a sleek, black cred-chip from his drawer. ”Five hundred thousand Neon-Chips. That’s my final offer. It’s all the liquid capital I have in the vault!”

”Sold,” Sebastian smiled warmly. He snatched the cred-chip from the broker’s trembling hand and tossed the Frost Scale across the desk. ”Pleasure doing business.”

Sebastian checked the balance on his UI.

[Current Balance: 500,000 Neon-Chips]

He was officially rich again.

”Now,” Sebastian said, leaning casually against the ruined desk. ”I didn’t just come here to pawn my trash. I need to buy something specific. Something very big, and very illegal.”

Vex carefully secured the freezing scale in a containment box, his hands still shaking. ”With that kind of capital, you can buy a small private army. What do you want?”

”A Regional Core,” Sebastian stated flatly.

Vex froze again. He slowly looked up, his mechanical eye whirring as it focused on Sebastian.

”A Regional Core?” Vex laughed, a nervous, high-pitched sound. ”Buddy, you don’t just buy a Regional Core. Those are administrative anchors. The Megacorporations use them to control entire sectors of the planet. They are priceless.”

”Everything has a price,” Sebastian countered. ”Who is selling one?”

Vex sighed, rubbing his human face with one of his hands. ”You’re insane. But you’re lucky. Tomorrow night, Aegis Corp is hosting a private, black-market auction at the Platinum Vault in the upper city. A corrupt executive is trying to liquidate an unregistered Regional Core he seized from a wiped server. He wants to sell it fast and quiet before the Military Police find out.”

”Perfect,” Sebastian nodded. ”How do I get an invite?”

”You don’t,” Vex sneered, regaining a tiny bit of his confidence. ”It’s invite-only. VIP corporate elites. You have the money, sure. But look at you! You look like a murder-hobo. If you walk into the Platinum Vault looking like that, their automated defense grids will vaporize you on sight.”

Sebastian looked down at his blood-stained coat and his dirty boots. He looked over at Gwen.

”Well, Seattle,” Sebastian sighed, tossing the cred-chip into the air and catching it. ”Looks like we need to go shopping.”