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

”Infinite durability doesn’t exist when the physics engine is turned off, you stupid calculator!” Sebastian roared back, saliva and blood flying from his lips.

*CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!*

His left hook slammed into the orange visor slit. His right cross followed immediately after, striking the heavy cheekplate. The sheer kinetic repetition was terrifying. Sebastian was operating on pure, absolute spite. He was pissed off that the system had locked Valerie in a coma. He was pissed off about the reality anchor. He was pissed off that his coat was ruined.

Every punch carried the weight of his anger.

By the tenth punch, the thick, indestructible iron dome began to dent.

By the twentieth punch, Sebastian’s black leather gloves were completely shredded. His knuckles split wide open. Bright red human blood splattered across the dark metal of the helmet, sizzling as it hit the hot uranium.

”Sebastian, your hands!” Valerie screamed from the perimeter, tears streaming down her glowing, translucent face as she watched him literally beat his own hands to a bloody pulp. ”Stop! You’re breaking your bones!”

Sebastian couldn’t hear her over the sound of his own heavy breathing and the crunching of metal.

*WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!*

”ERROR! STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED!” Goliath’s automated internal voice blared, the sound frantic and glitching. ”IMPACT DAMAGE EXCEEDING TOLERANCE!”

”Yeah, complain to HR!” Sebastian spat.

He brought both fists down together in a double-hammer strike.

*CRACK!*

The heavy iron dome fractured. A massive, jagged crack spider-webbed across the center of the helmet. The glowing orange light inside the slit sputtered and flickered wildly.

”No! Wait!” Goliath begged. The apex enforcer of Tartarus, a Level 100 mechanical nightmare, was suddenly experiencing the sheer terror of blunt force trauma. ”I am... I am the Warden!”

”You’re fired,” Sebastian growled.

He didn’t slow down. He sped up. He turned into a blur of bloody fists.

Punch thirty. Punch forty. Punch fifty.

Sebastian’s knuckles were a ruined, bloody mess of exposed white bone and torn flesh. The pain was absolute, blinding torture, shooting straight up into his shoulders with every single strike. But he didn’t care. He fed off the pain. It proved he was alive. It proved he wasn’t just a piece of code.

*SHATTER!*

With a sickening, metallic screech, the heavy iron faceplate completely caved inward. The metal broke apart, exposing the chaotic, glowing blue and green wiring of the giant’s mechanical brain beneath.

”SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE!” Goliath shrieked, the voice nothing but raw static.

Sebastian didn’t hesitate. He plunged his bloody, ruined right fist directly into the exposed, sparking brainpan.

*SQUELCH!*

It was a wet, horrifying sound. Sebastian’s fist bypassed the metal and slammed directly into the pulsing, gel-like processing cores that served as the giant’s brain.

He didn’t just punch it once. He pulverized it.

He brought his fist down again and again, beating the mechanical brain into a concave, sparking, ruined crater of blue sludge and shattered circuits. The thick, oily fluid mixed with Sebastian’s own red blood, splashing up onto his face and his chest.

He kept punching until there was absolutely nothing left to hit.

Finally, the massive, thrashing body of the Warden went completely, terrifyingly still. The orange light in the broken visor died.

[Target Eliminated. Boss Defeated.]

Sebastian stopped. He sat on the ruined, bloody chest of the dead giant, his chest heaving with desperate, ragged breaths. He looked down at his hands. They were unrecognizable. The knuckles were entirely pulverized, shaking violently and dripping thick streams of blood onto the metal.

He let out a long, exhausted, wet cough.

”I think I broke my thumb,” Sebastian wheezed to the empty air.

*VWOOOOOOM!*

The moment Goliath’s health bar officially vanished from the server’s registry, the Absolute Reality Anchor tied to his life force violently collapsed.

The heavy, suffocating gray light that had blanketed the black glass plateau instantly evaporated.

The transition was immediate and glorious.

The warm, heavy hum of Sebastian’s infinite mana pool violently rushed back into his chest. The dull, gray UI in his vision shattered, replaced instantly by the bright, pristine green and blue holographic windows of his Administrator interface. The [Thermal Immunity] passive instantly re-engaged, throwing a cool, refreshing blanket over his overheated, blistered skin.

He was a Demigod again.

”Sebastian!”

A rush of warm, brilliant blue Earth-mana swept over him. Valerie’s Astral Avatar shot across the plateau, completely unhindered by the suppression field. She landed on the giant’s chest right next to him, her glowing blue hands immediately grabbing his ruined, bloody fists.

”You absolute, stubborn idiot,” Valerie sobbed, fresh tears of blue light streaming down her face.

She didn’t wait for him to speak. She channeled her pure, unadulterated mana directly into his broken hands. The warm, soothing magic wrapped around his torn flesh and shattered bones. Right before his eyes, the deep cuts stitched themselves together. The exposed white bone knitted back into place, and the pale skin smoothed over the knuckles.

In seconds, his hands were perfectly healed, leaving only the faint, pulsing silver runic scars of his [Error] behind.

”Thanks, Seattle,” Sebastian murmured, flexing his fully restored fingers. He looked at her, his silver-tinged eyes soft. ”I told you I had it handled.”

”You beat a Level 100 boss to death with your bare hands while heavily debuffed,” Valerie shook her head, a mix of pure awe and exasperation in her voice. ”You are completely unhinged.”

”It was a good workout,” Sebastian smirked, wiping a smear of the giant’s blue blood off his cheek.

He stood up, standing on top of Goliath’s ruined chest plate. He looked down at the massive, concave crater he had beaten into the helmet.

He reached his newly healed right hand down into the sparking, oily mess of the brainpan. He dug deep, bypassing the shattered processor cores, until his fingers brushed against something hard, smooth, and heavily pulsing with raw data.

He gripped it and pulled.

*SHLUCK!*

Sebastian ripped a glowing, perfectly spherical object out of the giant’s head. It was the size of a bowling ball, radiating an intense, pulsing white and gold light. It hummed with absolute, unyielding administrative authority.

*BING!*

[Item Acquired: The Master Key (Mythic)]

[Description: Foundational Access Code. Grants the user absolute override authority to open the backdoor to the Core OS.]

Sebastian held the glowing key in his hands. The heavy, oppressive heat of Tartarus suddenly felt very distant. The screaming of the trillions of souls below them seemed to quiet down, sensing the shift in power.

He had the key. He had the fuel.

”Alright,” Sebastian said, his voice dropping into the cold, terrifying metallic hum of the Sovereign of Laws. He looked out past the edge of the plateau, toward the massive, infinite wall of pure white material hovering over the abyss. ”Let’s go have a chat with the Architects.”

—-

Sebastian stood in the center of the pulverized black glass plateau, his chest heaving with slow, exhausted breaths. In his right hand, he held the Master Key. It was the size of a bowling ball, radiating an intense, pulsing white and gold light. It felt incredibly heavy, vibrating with the sheer, unadulterated administrative authority of the Core OS.

Thick, dark motor oil and glowing blue hydraulic fluid dripped from his black tactical suit, pooling around his heavy combat boots. He was a complete mess. He smelled like burnt clutch fluid, raw sewage, and vaporized copper.

”I really need a shower,” Sebastian muttered. His voice echoed flatly through the empty, magic-less air. ”Or an industrial car wash. Either one works at this point.”

He looked down at his hands. The pale skin on his knuckles was perfectly smooth again, the deep, ragged cuts and shattered bones entirely knit back together by Valerie’s desperate burst of healing magic. Only the faint, pulsing silver runic scars of his [Error Accumulation] remained.

He turned his head to look at her.

Valerie’s Astral Avatar was hovering just a few feet away. The pristine blue Earth-mana that made up her projection was violently flickering again. Healing him had cost her. The translucent azure silk of her robes tore into jagged, low-resolution gray squares before violently snapping back into shape.

”You’re glitching again, Seattle,” Sebastian noted, stepping closer. He didn’t reach out to touch her this time; he knew his physical rendering was currently soaked in the toxic, residual malware of the dead Warden.

”I’m fine,” Valerie wheezed. She wiped a fresh streak of glowing red, digitized blood from her nose. It sizzled as it hit the hot obsidian floor. ”I just tapped into the secondary leyline reserves. Galleon is probably having a heart attack right now, but the signal is stable. Just... focus on the door, Sebastian.”

”You’re a terrible liar, Princess,” Sebastian sighed. ”But I appreciate the effort.”

*BING!*

His green, corrupted Administrator UI flickered back to life, hovering in the corner of his vision. The Absolute Reality Anchor that had suppressed his godhood was entirely gone. The warm, limitless well of his mana pool thrummed comfortably in his chest.

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