On the first day of the apocalypse, there was only one kind of monster worldwide—Level 0 Dimensional Bugs.
And the way players gained EXP by absorbing crystal cores followed a set rule:
Absorbing a same-level core: +1 EXP
Absorbing a core 1 level higher: +10 EXP
2 levels higher: +100 EXP
And so on.
At first glance, absorbing higher-level cores seemed like a fast track to leveling up.
But in reality, leveling wasn't so simple.
First, the higher your level, the more EXP you needed for the next.
Second, once you tried to fight monsters 5 levels above you, you'd be hit with Level Suppression—your attributes halved, your skills, talents, and even gear effects slashed in power.
The higher the level gap, the more brutal the penalty.
So even top-tier players rarely fought monsters more than 4 levels above them.
And on Day One, only Level 0 Dimensional Bugs existed.
That meant most players could only obtain Level 0 crystal cores—same level.
Theoretically, you could kill a Level 1 player and steal a Level 1 core.
But even that wouldn't get you to Level 2.
Here's why:
A Level 0 player absorbs a Level 1 core = +10 EXP → Level up to 1
After that, absorbing Level 1 cores = same level = +1 EXP per core
And players could only absorb 10 cores per day.
So under these rules, no one should've been able to reach Level 2 on the first day.
Which is why everyone in the global chat was buzzing with one question:
How the hell did Bakanov hit Level 2?!
Not long after, the system answered.
[Ding! Player Bakanov has slain a God's Chosen. Divine Punishment Quest has been triggered!]
[All players will now receive real-time coordinates of Bakanov's location.]
[Whoever kills Bakanov will receive the following rewards:]
+10,000 EXP
Orange-tier Treasure Chest ×1
One new Core Skill
Chaos.
"WTF?! What's a God's Chosen?! This Divine Punishment quest is insane—it's like the game wants Bakanov dead!"
"The rewards are insane! If I wasn't so far away, I'd join the hunt myself!"
"Word is the U.S. military has mobilized to take Bakanov down. Also, he was a criminal pre-apocalypse—definitely not worthy of being called a boss!"
"He's dead meat for sure!"
"Maybe he killed too many people and even the game couldn't stand it?"
"No, moron. The announcement clearly said it's because he killed a God's Chosen!"
"So... what is a God's Chosen?"
Right now, probably only Kai knew the full truth.
When the Slaughter Game descended, everyone awakened a talent.
But a tiny fraction of players became God's Chosen.
Kai knew there were only ten such individuals worldwide—at least before the first world fusion.
As the name implied, these people were "blessed by the gods."
Dimensional monsters instinctively avoided them to prevent accidental damage.
So in Kai's past life, many safe zones treated God's Chosen like mascots—monster-free zones formed around them naturally.
Only one God's Chosen had died before world fusion in Kai's timeline—and that was at the hands of Bakanov.
That one death triggered the Divine Punishment Quest, and the world learned the hard way:
God's Chosen must not be killed.
Because if you did—you'd instantly become the world's most wanted boss.
But this life? God's Chosen wouldn't be so lucky.
Because Kai had a plan: Kill them all.
Every. Last. One. Of the ten.
Before world fusion.
One was already dead.
Nine to go.
Kai opened the marketplace and listed an item:
B-Tier Talent Blood Crystal: FireblastTrade requirements: Clear Spirit Fruit + Moon God's Blessing
Note: This crystal grants the Fireblast talent to whoever absorbs it.
But just to make sure the right person noticed, Kai dropped a message in the global chat:
[Ad Post] Selling Talent Blood Crystal on the market—grants an extra talent slot! First come, first serve!
He said "first come, first serve," but Kai knew—only one player could possibly meet the requirements right now.
Bakanov.
More specifically, Bakanov's loot from killing the God's Chosen.
According to Kai's past life knowledge, killing one of the Chosen would always drop two things:
Clear Spirit Fruit
A divine blessing item (like Moon God's Blessing)
Plus some bonus EXP.
That bonus was how Bakanov hit Level 2.
As expected, Kai's post blew up the chat:
"Wait, a Talent Crystal?! I can finally stop being F-tier trash?!"
"Get real, scrub. You think you can afford that?"
"What the hell are Clear Spirit Fruit and Moon God's Blessing? They sound OP!"
Just then, someone else chimed in:
"Hi everyone. I'm one of the God's Chosen. I don't know what the fruit is, but I did receive a divine item—a necklace called 'Thunder God's Blessing.' It makes me immune to all lightning attacks!"
"HOLY—A real God's Chosen!!"
"Can you share more?! Is it like being the chosen one? Full luck stats? Plot armor?!"
Kai quietly watched, hoping for more leaks.
But the player never spoke again.
Meanwhile, his trade channel lit up.
Bakanov had messaged him.
Like the chat channel, the trade system was anonymous.
Each side was simply "Customer" and "Vendor."
But Kai only needed to read one line to know—
The fish was biting.
Customer: Who are you? How do you know I have Clear Spirit Fruit and Moon God's Blessing?
Kai (Vendor): That's outside the scope of this trade. Just tell me—are you willing to deal?
Customer (after a pause): Tell me what the fruit does. Otherwise, no deal.
The Moon God's Blessing reduced presence, hid level and curse tags.
For example, Level Rankers had glaring text above their heads like "#1 on Leaderboard."
Even with Invisibility, the damn text stayed visible.
But with Moon God's Blessing, it could be erased.
In theory, it could even hide your real-time location during a Divine Punishment quest.
Sounds amazing, right?
Perfect to escape being hunted?
But…
There was one cruel catch.
Anyone who killed a Moon God-blessed person… couldn't use the blessing.
So Bakanov couldn't use the thing.
He could only trade it.
He didn't mind giving up Moon God's Blessing.
But the fruit?
He didn't know what it did yet—and he wasn't about to hand it over blindly.
After all, now he was the global raid boss.
If the loot wasn't worth it… he'd feel seriously cheated.