Hey! Are you crazy?!" Dodge yelled, stopping his own strike. "That's an Elite! You're trying to tank that with a scrap-heap D-Rank armor? Do you want to be a suicide pawn?! GET BACK!"
It was suicide. In the logic of the system, the gap between D-Rank and C-Rank Elite was an unbridgeable "Dead Zone."
However, what happened next hit everyone's common sense like a sledgehammer. Even Lawson, the "Ten-Year Veteran," felt his jaw hit the floor.
On the battlefield, that lone warrior seemed possessed by a top-tier professional booster. Using a clunky, basic-tier starter rig, he was forcibly engaging the Brute Priest in a terrifying dance of melee combat.
Every jab, every side-kick was as precise as a surgeon's scalpel.
In the back, Lawson watched with his jaw dropped low enough to fit a fist inside. His pupils vibrated with shock.
"That movement... it's the descent of a hardcore veteran!"
Lawson's mind was screaming in disbelief as he instinctively began to analyze the suffocating combat style. "Even though his stats are too low for his hits to feel real, every strike is aimed at a 'Conceptual Weak Point'—the thin armor on the inner left chest, the Priest Core in the center... he even targeted that obscure secondary mana core at the 3 o'clock position on the back!"
Watching the warrior's fluid "pro-plays,"Secret Skillt a surge of professional camaraderie. "Is this guy... another old fossil who spent ten years rotting in the game like me?"
On the other side, Dodge, in his S-Rank {Tiger Soul}, was standing dazed, caught up in the spectacle. It wasn't until the Priest let out an enraged roar that Dodge snapped back to reality.
"Damn! That show was so good I almost forgot my job—I'm here to show off this sexy armor! Take this, you freak!"
The thrusters on {Tiger Soul} back flared to life. Like a steel predator descending from the mountains, Dodge lunged forward with absolute primal pressure.
"Wait! Stop! I haven't seen enoForge's that micro-play yet! Nooooo—!"
In the middle of this high-octane battle, a hilariously mismatched scene occurred:
Lawson, the supposedly legendary SSS-Rank Armor Smith, was currently being dragged away like a dried fish by the tiny game guide, Ester. She was pulling him toward the mall ruins with a strength that defied her size.
"Holy crap! My shirt's gonna tear! Help!" Lawson cried out in despair.
Watching her senior's "plight," Katie stifled a laugh and quickly followed them into the debris.
The interior of the mall was a desolate graveyard. Snapped cables flickered with sparks, and rubble was piled high.
Lawson looked around, letting out a dry, cynical laugh.
"Here? Build a base here? Ester, did the energy surge fry your AI brain during the transfer? Build it with what? Carrying bricks one by one by hand? By the time we're done, monsters will have unified the Earth."
"The System is not as ignorant as you. Everything is ready." Ester pulled out her tablet, her tone unquestionable. "Lawson. Come here."
"What for? A slave contract?" Lawson leaned in suspiciously.
"Give me your hand."
Ester was eerily calm. She held the tablet with one hand and took Lawson's hand with the other. The warm touch made Lawson freeze for a heartbeat.
She guided his palm, pressing it firmly against the glowing blue crest in the center of the screen.
[Authority Verified: SSS-Rank Armor Smith — Lawson][Player Save-Data Transfer Initiated... Core Blueprint Reconstructing...]
The progress bar slammed to 100% instantly. A destructive pillar of golden light erupted in the center of the mall without warning!
In the absolute silence that followed, the power of the Void began to howl. The solid structure of the mall twisted like paper caught in a black hole.
The ground turned into ripples; steel beams blurred and melted. The entire complex was being sucked inward by an invisible geometric field.
In less than a hundredth of a second, the remains of the old world were vaporized. In their place, a golden vortex hundreds of meters wide birthed itself in the sky—a God's Eye looking down upon the world!
RUMBLE—!
Gargantuan metal blocks poured from the vortex. They didn't just fall; they locked, snapped, and welded themselves together mid-air with nanosecond precision.
The heavy clangs of metal and the hum of hydraulic drives played a savage, orderly symphony of industrial power.
A fortress of sharp angles, flowing with cold blue light and absolute majesty, forcibly anchored itself into the coordinates of the real world!
"What... what the hell is this scale?"
Lawson stood inside a perfectly still, transparent protective shield. Through the energy field, he watched the world turn upside down in seconds, as if God were playing a game of real-time modeling.
"The system is extracting the save data from your game history," Ester said, staring at the metallic leviathan. "This site is being converted into—your Warrior Base."
"Ester, be honest. Just how high is the dimension of this system's authority? This level of creation is straight-up cheating!"
"An Omnipotent System."
"That's a non-answer!"
"I apologize," Ester looked at him blankly. "But my database only contains that one standard response."
"Tch. You're a terrible guide. You're definitely hiding the core intel!"
"—Stop arguing, you two! Look!" Katie's gasp cut through their bickering.
A futuristic, silver-white wonderland had torn away the veil of reality.
Cold metallic sheens, powerful streamlined walls—there wasn't a trace of a cheap shopping mall left. This was a true steel bastion born for war. The vast space was divided into two levels, connected by silent maglev elevators.
Above eight distinct sectors, holographic projections flickered. The text made Lawson, the hardcore veteran, feel dizzy with excitement:
[Lower Level: Core Maintenance]
Armor Forge (LV MAX) / Weapon Forge (LV MAX)Central Vault (LV MAX) / Medical Bay (LV MAX)
[Upper Level: Strategic Command]
Tactical Command Center (LV MAX) / Virtual Combat Room (LV MAX)Living Quarters (LV MAX) / High-Energy Canteen (LV MAX)
"This... this is exactly like my home base in the game!"
Lawson stared at the golden "LV MAX" icons. These weren't just models; these were the max-level sanctuaries he had spent ten years grinding to perfect!
"From now on, this is the Warrior Base of Nova Star," Ester's mechanical voice echoed. "You shall share all of this."
Katie looked around in genuine awe. "Senior, your planning back then was genius! Putting the heavy manufacturing and vaults on the lower level makes the resupply path incredibly short. The wartime efficiency is terrifying!"
"Uh, well..." Lawson scratched his head, his "Genius Strategist" image crumbling. He muttered, "I just did it because I was lazy... I didn't want to walk far to carry materials, so I piled them all together..."
"Ahem! Anyway! Let's go say hello to our old friends in the facilities. Meeting the NPCs in person will be amazing."
"Stop." Ester called out. Her voice, usually cold, held a trace of... awkwardness. "There is a small problem. Aside from me... there isn't a single NPC here."
Lawson froze mid-step. "What? The NPCs vaporized? Then these max-level facilities are just for show?"