Chapter 43: The Reaper’s Hunt

The Rezvani SUV drove along the dead-silent street, Aiden Cross’s gaze fixed like a precise navigation system on the most conspicuous building in the city center: City Hall, which had once symbolized order, authority, and power.

Now, the magnificent Baroque-style building had been reduced to a demon’s den. Black, blood-vessel-like vines crawled across its marble exterior, the windows lay shattered, and grim shadows could be vaguely seen moving within. An unsettling aura of evil radiated from the building, so oppressive that even the monsters lurking in the surrounding blocks rarely dared to approach.

This was the first, and also the highest-difficulty, early-stage ten-person team dungeon in the Ashford City area: [The Fall of City Hall].

Recommended Level: 5-8. Recommended Team Size: 10.

On the second day of the game’s invasion, this dungeon theoretically required a well-equipped and coordinated full-strength squad to have any chance of clearing it.

And Aiden Cross, at Level 4, was completely alone.

To anyone else, this would have been nothing short of suicide.

But in Aiden Cross’s eyes, there was only calm assessment. His stats far exceeded those of someone at his level. He possessed a Rare-grade weapon and Uncommon-grade defensive gear. More importantly, he possessed the foresight of someone who knew this dungeon like the back of his hand, along with the limitless growth potential granted by [Sovereign of Souls].

"It is time to make the name ’The Reaper’ truly resound throughout Ashford City."

He parked the SUV and stepped out.

Without the slightest hesitation, he strode toward the City Hall gates, which now resembled the gaping maw of some enormous beast.

The heavy oak doors had long since been damaged, leaving behind nothing but a deep, pitch-black entrance.

... [You have entered the dungeon area: The Fall of City Hall (Team Dungeon)]

[Recommended Level: 5-8. Recommended Team Size: 10.]

[Detected that you are entering solo. Party-based advantages will not be available. Dungeon parameters remain unchanged.]

The cold system prompt rang out once more, carrying a faintly mechanical acknowledgment of Aiden’s unusual choice.

Aiden Cross’s lips curled into a faint smile. ’Party-based advantages?’

He knew it was talking about the ability to handle multiple beasts easily as a party, but he didn’t need them. What he needed was efficiency. He needed shock.

Anyways, the moment Aiden stepped inside City Hall, the light around him suddenly dimmed.

The once-grand entrance hall, which had been adorned with pristine red carpets, was now buried beneath thick, sticky spiderwebs and splattered with dried bloodstains. A shattered crystal chandelier hung crookedly from the ceiling, its remaining crystals swaying slightly and casting twisted fragments of light and shadow across the walls.

The air was thick with the stench of decay, mixed with the damp, musty scent of old paper and rotting documents that seemed almost inseparable from the building’s former bureaucratic purpose.

Together, the odors formed a nauseating stench that clung to the back of Aiden’s throat.

Yet Aiden merely stood there, his expression unchanged.

His eyes slowly swept across the darkened hall.

The hunt had begun.

... The first batch of monsters appeared.

They were no longer low-level zombies or beasts.

Level 6 [Fallen Guards] emerged from the darkness, wearing tattered uniforms and wielding rusty ceremonial swords, broken table legs, and whatever other crude weapons they could get their hands on.

Among them floated several Level 5 [Resentful Documents], their yellowed pages twisting unnaturally in the air as they continuously scattered fragments of corrosive paper.

There were at least a dozen of them.

For a conventional ten-person squad, this would have been a serious battle. They would need a tank to maintain aggro, a healer to keep everyone alive, and enough DPS to focus down targets before the monsters overwhelmed them.

Even then, the margin for error would be extremely small.

But Aiden Cross was alone. But he could handle this, he first shot one with pressure shot, then he moved.

Like a fierce tiger plunging into a flock of sheep.

His [Power Gauntlets] flashed with cold light of Kinetic smash as [Root Entanglement] shot across the floor, precisely restraining the most threatening [Resentful Documents] before they could unleash their corrosive attacks.

Aiden’s figure weaved through the horde.

His footwork was swift and unpredictable. Every dodge was timed to perfection, every movement wasting not a single fraction of motion, and every strike aimed directly at a vital point.

-51!

-48!

-63! (Weak Point!)

His fists, reinforced by Kinetic Smash and titan strength, crashed into flesh and bone. The dull thuds of his strikes were accompanied by the sound of breaking bones and the monsters’ distorted cries.

Aiden no longer held anything back. He pushed the stats he had absorbed and his own combat techniques to their limits.

His overwhelming Strength allowed him to crush the monsters head-on. His extraordinary Agility made their attacks seem sluggish. His Constitution gave him enough health to withstand non-fatal blows without disrupting his momentum, while the mana supplied by his Spirit was more than enough to sustain his skill rotation.

And with every monster he killed, he grew stronger.

[Soul Essence absorbed! Strength +1 absorbed from target (Fallen Guard)!]

[Soul Essence absorbed! Spirit +1 absorbed from target (Resentful Document)!]

His attributes continued to climb, little by little, even as the battle raged around him.

It was like a perpetual motion machine. The more he fought, the stronger he became. The stronger he became, the faster he killed.

And the faster he killed, the stronger he became again. Aiden was no longer fighting a battle. He was operating a killing machine.

He tore through every obstacle in his path with ruthless efficiency. The grand hall, the corridors, the side rooms...

Wherever he passed, monsters collapsed into particles of data before dissolving into nothingness.

Yet Aiden’s greatest advantage was not his overwhelming attributes.

It was his knowledge. He knew where every trap and mechanism was hidden. The loose floorboards. The crossbows concealed within the walls.

The gargoyles waiting to drop from the ceiling.

Every deadly mechanism that had once been designed to kill intruders had become another weapon in Aiden’s hands.

At one point, he deliberately triggered a pressure-plate trap that required two people to activate simultaneously.

He lured an elite monster, the [Mad Scribe], directly onto the mechanism.

The moment the trap activated and immobilized it, Aiden closed the distance.

A burst combo followed. The elite monster never even had a chance to recover.