Chapter 2 Chapter 2: First Blood and the Whole City Knows His Name

【 Gods Chosen — Lv.1 】(Unique & Upgradable)

【 Effect 1: Luck +10 】(Luck is currently MAXED. Monster drop rate: 100%. Equipment enhancement success rate: 100%. Unlocks hidden End World plotlines.)

【 Effect 2: Damage +5% per level. Current bonus: +5% 】

"Holy—"

Alex caught himself. Swallowed. Looked at the words again.

SSS-rank.

Gods Chosen.

On the outside, he was still. Quiet. The kind of stillness that looked like calm.

On the inside? He was absolutely losing it.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to laugh until his lungs gave out. He wanted to find Derek Walsh — wherever that man had been teleported in this collapsing, rebuilding, magnificent disaster of a new world — and show him exactly what the company's most overlooked employee had just become.

SSS-rank.

He'd spent years watching his life from the inside of a glass box — same desk, same commute, same dead-end trajectory. His future had been visible from a mile away, and it hadn't been pretty.

But now?

Now everything was different.

He opened his personal attribute panel. The holographic display bloomed in front of him like a second heartbeat:

【 Human: ACE — Lv.1 】(0 / 100 EXP)

| Stat | Value | Notes |

|---|---|---|

| Physical Attack | 10 | — |

| Magic Attack | 10 | — |

| Constitution | 5 | 1 CON = 1 Phys. Defense = 10 HP |

| Spirit | 6 | 1 SPI = 1 Mag. Defense = 10 MP |

| Agility | 5 | Affects speed, casting, evasion |

| Free Attribute Points | 0 | +3 per level up |

| Luck (Hidden) | 10 / 10 | Cannot be increased manually, already maxed |

【 Talent: Gods Chosen Lv.1 】

【 Resurrections: 1 】

【 Skill: Fireball (Common), Deals 120% magic damage. Cast time: 1 sec. MP cost: 20. Cooldown: 10 sec. 】

(Skill Tiers: Common → Excellent → Rare → Epic → Legendary → God-Tier)

Alex stared at the Luck stat for a long time.

Maximum value. Permanently.

He'd played enough online games growing up to know exactly what that meant. Equipment enhancement the mechanic that had bankrupted virtual wallets and shattered keyboards across the gaming world for decades

was, for everyone else, a gamble. A cruel, soul-crushing gamble where even a 90% success rate somehow found a way to fail on the upgrade that mattered most.

He'd seen it happen. He'd lived it happen.

But for him? With maxed Luck?

100% success rate. Every time. No exceptions.

Stack the materials. Hit enhance. Walk away with God-tier gear.

Every single time.

"Gods Chosen," he murmured to himself, and the corner of his mouth pulled upward.

As expected.

The End World merger wasn't complete yet the sky was still churning gold, the ground still trembling in slow, rhythmic pulses but New York City was already unrecognizable.

Alex figured he had a few minutes.

He navigated to the chat panel in the bottom-right corner of his system interface and tapped in.

【 APOCALYPSE EMPIRE — NEW YORK EASTERN SECTOR, SAFE ZONE CHANNEL 】

【 JustHereForTheVibes 】: WHAT THE HELL?? I was at the gym!! Put me BACK!!

【 NoOnionsPlease 】:AHHHHH I WANT TO GO HOME I WANT MY MOM

【 AlmostPerfectAttendance 】: I was ONE DAY away from my monthly bonus. ONE. DAY. I hate this world so much.

【 BornToBeKing99 】: HAHAHA finally!! New world, come BOW to your ruler!!

【 JustARegularDude 】: My talent's E-rank... it's over for me

【 LovesTheFiner Things 】: E-rank is fine babe

Alex scrolled past the chaos with a faint smile.

Some things never change, even at the end of the world.

Then the golden sky-screen flared white.

【 END WORLD MERGER: COMPLETE 】

【 End World — Chapter 1: CALAMITY AND REBIRTH 】

【 All Adventurers will be randomly teleported to locations near their designated Safe Zones 】

The dizziness hit like a blackout and when Alex opened his eyes, the 34th floor of Hope Tower was gone.

He was standing in a forest.

Not Central Park. Not any park he recognized. A forest dense, dark-canopied, ancient-feeling, where midtown Manhattan had been not twenty minutes ago. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the skeletal groans of steel skyscrapers being swallowed by roots the width of subway tunnels.

He looked down at his hand.

A staff had materialized in his grip, plain, lightweight, functional.

【 Novice Staff — Magic Attack +2 】

Before he could examine it further, the golden screen blazed again overhead:

【 END WORLD — GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT 】

【 Effective immediately: A Survival Mission will be issued every other day. 】

【 Failed missions result in the loss of 1 Resurrection. When Resurrections reach zero — PERMANENT DEATH. 】

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

【 SURVIVAL MISSION 1 of 5: Reach your designated Safe Zone. 】

【 Time Limit: 1 Day, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes 】

【 Success Reward: 1 Gold Coin + 50 EXP + 1 Resurrection 】

【 Failure Penalty: -1 Resurrection 】

【 Hint: Follow the markers on your mini-map. 】

The golden screen vanished.

And the forest exploded into noise.

Swish. Swish. Swish.

White light popped all around him like camera flashes Adventurers teleporting in, one after another, landing in the undergrowth with stumbling feet and wild eyes.

"Where am I?! Someone help me!"

"My phone's dead there's no signal, oh God, oh God"

"I'm not dying out here! Someone carry me through this mission, PLEASE!"

"HA! No more nine-to-five! I'm FREE!"

"I am the chosen one! The only chosen one!"

Alex watched them all.

Some were paralyzed. Some were already sprinting in the wrong direction. One man was inexplicably in nothing but his boxer shorts, looking personally offended by the entire situation.

The Survival Mission hung over every single one of them like a blade on a fraying thread.

Alex pulled up his mini-map and studied the marker.

Safe Zone is northeast. Manageable distance. Dense monster spawn likely between here and

"CARTER!"

He went still.

That voice.

He knew that voice the way you know the sound of a door slamming in an empty building immediate, visceral, unpleasant.

He turned.

And there, forty feet away through the scattered crowd of panicked New Yorkers, stood Derek Walsh.

Same tailored shirt. Same practiced scowl. Already red in the face, already looking for someone to take it out on.

Alex looked at him for a long moment.

Then he looked at the chaos around them.

No cameras. No HR department. No security badge, no building policies, no legal department on speed dial.

No order. No law.

Just people. And choices.

Alex's grip tightened around his novice staff.

He started walking.

Derek spotted him coming and immediately launched into it — because of course he did. Because Derek Walsh had spent two years treating Alex Carter like a piece of furniture, and furniture didn't fight back.

"Carter! I'm talking to you — are you deaf? Figure out what's going on here, right now. That's an order."

Alex didn't answer.

He kept walking. Steady. Unhurried.

"Hey"

Fireball.

The spell condensed at the tip of his staff in less than a second a tight, spinning sphere of orange-red flame the size of a baseball and launched.

"What theI'm your BOSSare you INSANE?!"

Derek stumbled backward, but he'd been assigned Knight class. Five base Agility points. Slow.

Not slow enough to run. Too slow to dodge.

BANG.

The fireball caught him dead in the chest.

-13! (120% skill modifier + 5% talent bonus, -2 magic defense)

Red damage numbers bloomed above Derek's head like a slap made visible.

【 DING! You have been flagged as the target of a malicious attack from Adventurer "ACE." Killing this attacker will NOT increase your Sin Value. 】

(The notification went to Derek. Not Alex.)

Derek looked down at the scorch mark on his shirt. Then back up at Alex.

His face cycled through shock, then disbelief, then the particular fury of a man who has never once been challenged in his life and does not know what to do about it.

"You— you actually hit me?"

Alex stopped walking. He tilted his head slightly, like he was considering something.

Then he smiled.

"Your girlfriend," Alex said pleasantly, "is incredible, by the way."

He let that land.

"That waist. Those legs." He clicked his tongue. "You really had no idea what you had, did you, Derek?"

-10!

A magic bolt followed the words like punctuation.

Something broke behind Derek's eyes.

He hadn't been able to reach Sophia all night. All night. And now this man this nobody, this furniture was standing in front of him wearing that expression and saying that

"CARTER!" Derek ripped the novice iron sword from his inventory with shaking hands. "YOU'RE DEAD!"

He lunged.

The sword caught Alex across the forearm a clean, stinging slice.

【 DING! Attack received from Adventurer "Derek Walsh." HP -3. 】

Alex hissed through his teeth.

The pain was real. Shockingly, humiliatingly real. Not game-pain. Real-world pain, sharp and immediate, radiating up to his elbow.

But 3 HP.

Three.

He looked at Derek flushed, heaving, sword raised, 70 HP and a Knight's constitution and absolutely zero tactical sense and felt something settle in his chest like a key turning in a lock.

"You think," Alex said quietly, "that the new world is going to look anything like the old one?"

He raised his staff.

Magic Bolt — Magic Bolt — Magic Bolt

-10 / -10 / -10—

"Stop— ow— Carter, I swear to God—"

-15! ⚡ WEAKNESS STRIKE!

Derek's hands flew to cover himself as his HP bar cratered. He'd started with 70. He was running on fumes now — 2 HP, gasping, stumbling backward into the crowd.

And he was afraid.

Alex watched it happen watched the moment Derek Walsh finally understood that the rules he'd built his entire personality around no longer existed and felt something he hadn't felt in years.

Satisfaction. Clean, uncomplicated satisfaction.

"Carter — Carter, wait—" Derek was backing away, voice cracking. "I'm sorry, okay? I'll — Sophia, I'll give you Sophia, do whatever you want with her, just don't—"

Alex was already casting.

He had 5 Agility points. Derek had 2.

There was nowhere to run.

Fireball.

-13!

Derek Walsh: 0 HP.

"NO—!"

A scream. A flash of white light.

And Derek Walsh dissolved — armor, sword, scorch marks and all — leaving nothing behind but fading light and the faint smell of ozone.

【 DING! Adventurer "Derek Walsh" has been eliminated. 】

【 EXP +3 | Sin Value +1 | You are now GRAY-NAMED. 】

(Gray-named players drop 1 random equipment piece upon death + 20% currency. Sin Value can be cleared by completing missions.)

Alex stood in the space where his boss used to be.

His chest was heaving. His hands were shaking not from fear. From the adrenaline of it, from the sheer realness of it, from two years of rage finally having somewhere to go.

His name had turned gray in the system display above his head. He could see others in the crowd noticing, backing away, whispering.

Gray name. Player killer. Dangerous.

He almost laughed.

"Gray name," he said to no one in particular, catching his breath. "Sure. Worth it."

One fireball. Two years of overtime, stolen credit, and unpaid bonuses — paid back in thirteen points of magic damage.

He'd take it.

Then a sound ch

imed in his mind — bright, clear, and completely unexpected.

【 !! DING !! 】

【 Congratulations, Adventurer "ACE" — AREA FIRST KILL ACHIEVED! 】

【 Achievement Unlocked: "THE FIRST STEP" 】

【 An Area-Wide Announcement will be broadcast to all Adventurers in the New York Eastern Sector. 】

【 Would you like to conceal your ID? 】