Chapter 9: The World-Class Bounty
The city of Aegis Prime did not sleep after the fall of the Gilded Lily; it screamed.
Within minutes of Kaelen's disappearance into the night, the "Sovereign Incident" was trending across every neural-link, holo-screen, and retinal-implant on the planet. The footage—raw, terrifying, and undeniable—showed a supposedly dead F-Ranker dismantling a Gold-Rank Captain like he was made of wet cardboard and prayer. It wasn't just a murder; it was a blasphemy against the very religion of the Ranks.
The Aegis Organization's response was not an investigation. It was an erasure. A global emergency broadcast cut through every entertainment channel, the red-and-gold seal of the High Senate flashing with an ominous pulse.
**[GLOBAL BOUNTY ISSUED]**
**[Target: Kaelen Thorne]**
**[Designation: 'The Glitch' / Class-S Anomaly]**
**[Threat Level: Calamity (Potential)]**
**[Reward: 500,000,000 Credits / Immediate Promotion to Diamond Rank for the Slayer.]**
**[Authorization: Dead or Alive. Soul Core Retrieval Mandatory.]**
Kaelen stood on the rusted, salt-pitted edge of a gargoyle atop the *Old Sentinel* tower, a crumbling relic of the pre-Aether era located in the industrial dead-zone of Sector 12. The wind up here was a howling beast, biting through his blood-stained rags, but his **Vitality of 20** made the sub-zero chill feel like a mild spring breeze.
Below him, the city looked like a disturbed anthill. He watched as the sky began to fill with the flickering blue strobes of Aegis Interceptor Drones and the heavy, golden vapor-trails of "Peacekeeper" squads—the elite hunters mobilized to prune the anomaly before it could spread.
"Half a billion credits," Kaelen murmured, his voice caught and shredded by the wind. "I guess I'm worth more as a corpse than I ever was as a citizen."
**[New Quest: 'The Gauntlet of the High Heavens']**
**[Objective: Survive the first wave of the Global Bounty hunters.]**
**[Condition: Remain within city limits. Do not use 'False Mask'.]**
**[Time Remaining: 59:59]**
**[Reward: Unlock 'System Inventory: Weapon Synthesis' & +20 Free Stat Points.]**
"You want me to stay and fight?" Kaelen's eyes glowed a sharp, crystalline gold, reflecting the lights of the approaching armada. "Fine. System, tell them I'm not going anywhere."
He didn't have to wait long. The air behind him hummed with a sudden, violent displacement of mana—the sound of a high-tier 'Blink' spell.
*CRACK.*
The stone gargoyle beneath his boots disintegrated as a bolt of pure, white-hot lightning struck it with the force of a falling star. Kaelen had already moved—not with a skill, but with the raw, terrifying reflex of his **35 Agility**. He landed on the sloped, metal roof ten meters away, his boots sparking against the zinc.
Three figures hovered in the air, held aloft by glowing, crystalline mana-wings. These weren't the bloated, arrogant Gold-Rankers like Vance who relied on prestige and low-rank bullying. These were the **Azure Vanguard**—a Tier-1 Strike Team of Platinum-Rank hunters, the kind usually reserved for S-Rank Gate collapses.
"Target identified," the leader spoke, his voice distorted by a heavy, mechanical helm etched with anti-magic runes. He held a spear made of solid electrical current that hissed as it touched the rain. "Kaelen Thorne, by order of the High Senate, your life-thread is officially severed. Surrender the 'Glitch' core, and we will ensure your soul-extraction is painless. Defy us, and we will burn the memories of your existence from the Aether."
Kaelen didn't answer with words. He didn't even look at the leader. Instead, he reached into the digital ether of his mind and opened the **System Shop** mid-combat.
**[Purchase: 'Hollow-Point Aether Daggers' (Rank-B) – 1000 Credits.]**
**[Purchase: 'Impact Boots: Obsidian Grade' (Rank-B) – 800 Credits.]**
**[Balance: 3200 Credits.]**
Two jet-black daggers, their blades vibrating with a high-frequency hum, materialized in his grip. Simultaneously, his bare feet were encased in heavy, rune-etched obsidian plating that locked onto his shins with a metallic *click*.
"Painless?" Kaelen's shadow began to stretch and writhe on the roof, fueled by the rising tide of his **Blood-Lust Aura**. "You're talking to a man who died in the dark of a Labyrinth while his 'Captain' laughed. I've forgotten what 'painless' feels like. Why don't you remind me?"
The Platinum leader's eyes flared behind his visor. "So be it. Execute Protocol 9."
The three hunters descended like falling stars. The spear-wielder led the charge, his weapon trailing a tail of lightning that turned the midnight air into blinding noon. To his left, a "Caster" draped in sapphire robes began chanting a high-speed incantation, summoning a ring of frost-fire intended to flash-freeze Kaelen's joints. To his right, a "Brawler" cloaked in five inches of enchanted earth-armor prepared to crush the entire roof beneath his weight.
Kaelen didn't retreat. He didn't blink. He activated **Monarch's Domain**.
The violet shockwave erupted from his feet, but the Platinum-Rankers were prepared. They flared their combined auras, a wall of blue-gold mana grinding against Kaelen's violet domain with a sound like grinding tectonic plates. They didn't fall to their knees like the Silver-Rankers, but their movements slowed. The air became thick, like syrup.
Kaelen exploited that micro-second of physical friction.
He used **Shadow Step**, but not to evade. He used it as a bridge. He disappeared from the roof and reappeared directly in the personal space of the Caster.
"First," Kaelen hissed.
Before the mage could finish her frost-fire spell, Kaelen's black dagger blurred in an upward arc. He didn't aim for the chest; he drove the blade through the mana-conduit in her throat, the very spot where her power flowed from her soul-core to her lips. The 'Hollow-Point' enchantment triggered, the dagger acting like a vacuum. It sucked the Aether out of her lungs and detonated it.
*BOOM.*
The Caster was thrown backward, her mana-wings shattering into useless shards of blue glass. She fell from the roof, a silent, unconscious streak plummeting toward the smog-filled streets below.
"SARA!" the leader roared, his spear crackling with renewed, insane fury. He thrust the weapon forward, a beam of lightning wide enough to incinerate a main battle tank erupting from the tip.
Kaelen didn't dodge. He slammed his right foot down, activating the **Impact Boots**. A localized shockwave of kinetic energy—force he had stored from his landing—discharged, meeting the lightning head-on and canceling its momentum in a shower of sparks. He charged through the smoke, his **35 Agility** making him a literal ghost in the storm.
He met the Earth-Brawler mid-air. The man's fist, encased in three feet of enchanted granite, swung with enough force to level a tenement building.
Kaelen caught the fist with his left hand.
The roof beneath Kaelen's obsidian boots buckled, the massive steel support beams of the tower screaming as they bent. But Kaelen's **25 Strength**—compounded by the 'Fallen Sovereign' title—held firm. He didn't just stop the punch; he twisted his hips and pivoted.
*CRA-A-ACK.*
The earth-armor shattered into pebbles. The Brawler's radius and ulna followed an instant later. Kaelen didn't stop there. He planted his knee in the man's exposed solar plexus, the **Impact Boots** discharging their remaining kinetic reserve. The Brawler was launched like a cannonball, smashing through the reinforced glass of a neighboring skyscraper and disappearing into the darkness of an office floor.
Finally, Kaelen turned his gaze to the leader.
The Platinum hunter was shaking. His spear was flickering, the electrical output dropping as his confidence wavered. He had fought dragons in the Northern Rifts. He had cleared S-Rank Gates solo. But he had never seen an E-Ranker move with this level of efficiency. He had never seen someone *absorb* mana-attacks and throw them back as physical force.
"What... what kind of monster are you?" the leader gasped, his helm's HUD flashing red warnings. "You aren't a Player. You're a virus."
Kaelen walked toward him, the black daggers dripping with the blue, viscous mana-fluid of the Caster. The golden rings in his eyes were now spinning in opposite directions—a visual manifestation of the System's overclocked processing power.
"I'm the debt you forgot to pay when you built this city on the Ranks," Kaelen said.
He moved faster than the man's eyes could track. He appeared behind the leader, his hand resting almost gently on the man's armored shoulder.
"Tell the Organization to stop sending children," Kaelen whispered into the man's helm, his voice vibrating with the power of the Monarch. "If they want to collect this bounty, they'll have to send the Diamonds. Or better yet... tell them to come themselves."
With a casual, terrifyingly strong shove, Kaelen sent the leader tumbling from the roof. He didn't kill him; he needed the man to live. A dead messenger carries no warnings.
**[Time Remaining: 42:15]**
Kaelen stood alone on the broken roof of the Sentinel, the sirens of the city reaching a fever pitch. He looked at his daggers, then up at the sky. More lights were coming. Dozens of them. The "Gauntlet" had only just begun, and the air was already beginning to hum with the arrival of the second wave.
"System," Kaelen said, a dark, hungry grin spreading across his face as he felt the rush of the Level-Up. "Open the 'Weapon Synthesis' menu. These daggers are too small for what's coming next."