The line between the Slime Meadows and the Dark Forest was not just a change in the grass. As Vahn Ryker walked across the invisible border, the bright green of the starter area changed into a nasty and suffocating grey. The air smelled weird, like a mix of electricity and wet dirt. To a normal player, this was just the Dark Forest, a place of mystery and fear. To Vahn, it was just a pile of old data and trash scripts waiting for him to delete them.
He checked his clock. Only 00:03:42 remained before the big global event started. His heart beat at a steady sixty beats per minute. The 50 points he put into Intelligence were already making him a genius. His mind saw the trees moving not as wind, but as a bunch of math lines. He could see the cracks in the world where the textures did not touch, showing him paths the developers tried to hide.
"I found the Ghost Path," Vahn whispered. His voice was very dry.
He did not just walk, he glided across the ground. With 50 Agility, his speed was five times faster than the highest ranked Elite idiots still struggling with slimes in the meadows. He moved like a sharp knife through silk, and his shadow was just a blur against the trees. The forest floor was covered in pine needles, but they did not even make a sound under his boots. He had already figured out the friction of the dirt to make sure he did not waste any energy.
Suddenly, the temperature dropped. A thick and unnatural fog rolled in, sticking to the ground like a predator. In the middle of a clearing stood a giant black stone that pulsed with a purple light.
[Warning! Boss Territory Entered!]
[Identifying Monster: The Ghost of the Tutorial!]
[Level: 10 (Elite Boss)!]
[Threat Level: Fatal!]
The Ghost did not just appear, it loaded into the world. It was a tall and skeletal figure wearing rags that looked like falling code. It held a giant scythe made of shadow, and the blade flickered with the same purple light as the stone. This was the gatekeeper, a boss made for forty men to fight at once. It was supposed to be a thirty minute fight of strategy and waiting.
Vahn looked at the boss and only saw something in his way.
"You are just a mistake in the data," Vahn said. His purple eyes started glowing with blue circuits. "I am the Architect. I am going to clear the cache!"
The Ghost screamed! It was a sound like a broken audio file. It vanished and appeared right behind Vahn, swinging its scythe to cut his head off.
Vahn did not even turn around. He figured out the speed of the swing and the reach of the blade. He leaned forward by exactly three point four centimeters. The blade hissed through the air, missing his neck by just a hair.
[Skill Activated: Flashpoint!]
For one second, Vahn's speed doubled. To the Ghost, he just stopped existing. To Vahn, the world became a still picture. He ran around the boss, holding his rusted knife in a reverse grip. He was not looking for a weak spot like a normal person. He was looking for the heart of the Ghost's data, the core that held it together.
He found it. It was a small and vibrating light just below the ghost's chest.
He stabbed it. The rusted knife hit the light with perfect precision even though its durability was almost zero.
[Critical Hit!]
[Damage: 124 (Logic Override Applied)!]
The Ghost fell back, and its body started flickering. It tried to teleport away, but Vahn's Intelligence let him see exactly where it was going because of the energy in the air. He was already standing at the spot before the boss even arrived.
"Too slow," Vahn muttered.
He realized he was being too slow and time was not on his side. The 10,000x multiplier was working on his experience, but he needed a better tool to finish this before the timer hit zero. He opened his system menu while fighting, and his fingers moved faster than a human could see.
"Spend 40,000 EXP. Evolve Skill: Flashpoint!"
[Warning! Too much EXP might break the skill! Continue?]
"Do it."
The gold light of his EXP reservoir drained away and went into his feet. The air around him started to warp, and the clearing looked like a heat haze.
Vahn tested the skill. He did not even blink. One moment he was in front of the Ghost, and the next he was thirty feet away standing on top of the black stone. There was no sound and no wind. He had just moved through reality.
"The world is just a plan," Vahn whispered, "and I found the eraser."
He used Temporal Step again. The world turned grey. The Ghost was frozen in the middle of a scream, and its scythe was stuck in the air. Vahn walked calmly through the frozen forest. He reached out and pushed the rusted knife into the boss's core. He did not use strength, he just used his Architect powers to label the boss as nothing.
Time started again.
The Ghost did not die, it just dissolved. It broke into a million pieces of purple light that were sucked into Vahn's chest.
[You killed the Tutorial Boss: The Ghost of the Tutorial!]
[World First Achievement Unlocked!]
[Base EXP: 1,000!]
[Hidden Multiplier Detected: 10,000x!]
[Calculating!]
[You received 10,000,000 EXP!]
A bunch of blue screens covered his eyes, telling him about level ups he did not care about. He swiped them away. He stayed at Level 1, but his EXP was now full of power to change the laws of the world.
"Who are you?"
The voice was soft and pretty, but she sounded really scared.
Vahn turned his head slowly. Standing at the edge of the clearing was a girl. She had long and wavy hair the color of cherry blossoms. It was a rare pink gold color that shined even in the dark forest. Her eyes were bright green and wide with shock. She wore white and gold robes of a high level Healer, and she held a staff that was shaking in her hands.
This was Aria. The Priestess. She was the girl whose beauty was a legend in the future he remembered.
"Name: Aria," Vahn said. His voice had no emotion. "Class: Priestess. Status: You are trespassing on my work site."
Aria took a step back, and her knuckles were white because she was gripping her staff so hard. She had watched the Ghost, a monster that killed every group that tried to enter, get deleted in seconds by a guy who looked like a loser but moved like a god.
"I was with a group," she stammered. Her eyes looked at his face, trying to find a soul behind his glowing blue eyes. "They were all killed by the fog. I was the only one left. You just killed it alone. That is impossible. The damage numbers did not make any sense!"
Vahn jumped off the stone and landed without a sound. He walked toward her and stopped right in front of her. He analyzed her. Her heart was beating at 110 bpm. Her eyes were wide. Her adrenaline was peaking.
"You should leave," Vahn said. "I am clearing this area. Your presence is just an error."
"An error?" Aria got angry for a second. She was the most beautiful girl around, and every man wanted to protect her. No one had ever called her an error. "I am a person! You arrogant jerk! Is Architect what you called yourself?"
Vahn did not answer. He looked past her toward the North Gate. The countdown was still going.
"Wait!" Aria yelled as he started to walk away. "You cannot just leave me here! The forest is full of monsters!"
Vahn stopped. He thought for a moment about his memories. In the future, Aria was the only one who could heal his soul from the energy he had to use. He needed her to stay alive.
"Follow me five meters behind," Vahn ordered. He did not look back. "If you move even ten centimeters away from my path, I will leave you. Move."
Aria bit her lip because she was scared and curious. She followed him. She did not know it yet, but she was not just following a player. She was following the man who would either save the universe or become the monster she was born to stop.