Chapter 129: SSS+?

The absolute silence of the mountain pass was violently shattered by the sound of tearing dimensional fabric.

A jagged rift of starry, profound darkness ripped open in the center of the snowy ridge. Stepping out of the void was a massive, terrifying destrier forged entirely from compressed shadows and starlight. The Void Horse let out a silent, echoing neigh, its hooves leaving burning imprints of cold fire in the deep snow.

Sitting atop the nightmare beast was Kaelen Vance.

The Guild Master of the Crimson Dawn surveyed the sprawling valley below, his dark eyes burning with an intense, calculated obsession. His heavily customized, crimson plate armor radiated a suffocating heat that instantly melted the snow falling around him. He looked like a warlord surveying a kingdom he intended to burn to ash.

A moment later, two exhausted figures stumbled out of the spatial tear before it snapped shut. Silas, the Level 33 Rogue, and Sienna, the Level 30 Support Mage, collapsed into the freezing snow, gasping for breath as their lower-tier systems struggled to process the dimensional whiplash of the Void Horse’s transit.

"Get up," Kaelen commanded coldly, not sparing them a single glance.

Silas forced himself to his feet, his teeth chattering uncontrollably in the freezing altitude. He fumbled in his spatial inventory, retrieving the heavy parchment map and cross-referencing their coordinates with the topographical layout of Sector 12.

"Guild... Guild Master," Silas stammered, his breath pluming in the freezing air. "These are the correct coordinates. This is the hidden NPC sanctuary. The Dragonkin village."

Kaelen remained silent, his dark eyes sweeping over the lush, vibrant green valley nestled securely at the base of the mountains. He saw the glowing blue mana-rivers, the clustered bamboo architecture of the village, and the towering crystalline trees.

"The regional reports were explicit," Kaelen stated, his voice laced with dangerous, simmering tension. "This valley was supposed to be completely inaccessible. Choked by an impenetrable Void Mist that instantly degraded the health bars of anyone who approached."

Silas swallowed hard, looking out over the perfectly clear, tranquil valley. "The mist... it’s completely gone, Guild Master. The environmental hazard has been entirely erased."

Kaelen’s features tightened into a cruel, predatory smile.

"An impenetrable, localized environmental hazard does not simply evaporate," Kaelen murmured, his armored hand resting heavily on the hilt of his massive crimson halberd. "It must be severed at the root. It requires the execution of a Realm Lord. It requires him."

He had found it. He had spent weeks tracking the impossible, following the shattered economies and broken level curves left in the wake of the player who had humiliated him in the Eastern Checkpoint. Erasing the Void Mist to claim a hidden sanctuary was exactly the kind of arrogant, god-tier maneuver Kaelen expected from the Anonymous Player.

"Deploy the Astral Compass," Kaelen ordered.

Silas flinched, quickly nodding. He reached deep into his inventory and pulled out a complex, heavily enchanted artifact. It was a globe of spinning, golden rings hovering around a core of pure, liquid starlight.

The Astral Compass was an high-grade scrying tool that Kaelen had sacrificed some guild members to secure from a high-tier dungeon. It completely bypassed standard stealth mechanics, filtering out ambient wildlife and NPC signatures to strictly isolate and categorize high-density player data.

Silas activated the artifact, pouring his mana into the golden rings.

The rings spun violently, emitting a low, harmonic hum. A spectral wave of invisible, sweeping energy washed down the mountain pass and rolled over the Azure Scale valley like a localized radar ping.

Kaelen watched the globe intently. He didn’t care about the low-level Dragonkin. He was hunting him.

The compass hummed louder, the liquid starlight in its core flashing violently as it collided with an overwhelming, catastrophic mana signature residing at the far edge of the valley, near a rushing blue waterfall.

"Target acquired," Silas reported, his voice trembling as he looked at the holographic data attempting to project from the compass. "Guild Master... the artifact is struggling to parse the data. The target’s raw level is completely obscured by a firewall of Mythic-tier titles. The system is aggressively rejecting the scan."

"Force it," Kaelen snarled, his SS-Rank Emperor’s Domain bleeding slightly into the air, projecting a suffocating aura of absolute authority. "I don’t care about his level. Filter for his foundational code. Show me his Role Talent!"

Silas gritted his teeth, dumping his entire remaining mana pool into the artifact. The golden rings spun so fast they became a blur of solid light. The liquid starlight core pulsed, fighting against the overwhelming conceptual defense of the target below.

Slowly, the holographic text began to materialize in the air between them.

?[Target Player Detected]?

?[Role: Support]?

?[Target Role Talent: Aura of the Undying (SSS+)]?

The glowing text hung in the air, undeniable and absolute.

Sienna let out a choked gasp, stumbling backward and falling into the snow. Silas dropped his hands, his face completely devoid of color, his eyes wide with unadulterated terror.

"SSS+..." Silas whispered, his voice cracking. "That’s... that’s not possible. The system tutorial explicitly stated that SSS was the absolute ceiling. Nothing exists above SSS. It breaks the fundamentals of Eternal Heaven."

Kaelen Vance did not speak.

He stared at the glowing blue text, the reflection dancing in his dark, furious eyes. The anger that had consumed him for the past month—the burning humiliation of having his economic empire casually destroyed by an unknown player—suddenly crystallized into a chilling, absolute realization.

The person who had ruined him wasn’t just a lucky player who had stumbled onto a good class. He wasn’t a coordinated raid group hiding behind an anonymous tag.

He was a system glitch. He was a walking, breathing anomaly that completely shattered the limitations of Eternal Heaven.

Kaelen’s hands trembled, not from fear, but from an overwhelming, vindictive rush of triumph. To assert his absolute dominance over the world, he couldn’t just conquer ordinary men. He had to conquer a god. He had to drag a literal system anomaly into his Emperor’s Domain and force it to kneel to his authority.

Kaelen threw his head back, a dark, echoing laugh tearing from his throat, completely shattering the quiet isolation of the mountain pass.

"SSS+? Impossible, it’s you, it must be. Finally!"