The transition back to the Iron Bastion was perfectly smooth.

Declan’s new Agility stats completely absorbed the spatial displacement. He didn’t even stumble.

Nova and Morgan materialized behind him. The hacker groaned and grabbed her stomach. She was still getting used to the brutal physics of cross-map teleportation.

Declan ignored them. He walked over to the heavy iron railing of the balcony and looked down at his city.

The courtyard was a massive hive of activity.

Thousands of players were hauling massive wooden carts filled with raw iron ore and monster parts.

The central forges roared with bright purple magic. They cast long shadows across the black stone pavement.

The massive transparent red energy dome held firm above them. It easily pushed back the toxic rain and smog of the wasteland outside.

"Boss!" a loud exhausted voice called out.

Declan looked down. Sloane was standing near her mahogany Quartermaster desk. She was waving her glowing digital clipboard in the air.

"You were gone for two hours!" Sloane yelled up at the balcony.

"The logistics interface is completely jammed! The hunting parties brought back five hundred low-level cores and I don’t have the storage space to process them!"

Declan sighed. "I’m coming down."

He didn’t use the stairs. He just stepped right over the heavy iron railing and dropped fifty feet into the courtyard.

His +10 Spiked Striders hit the stone pavement with a heavy solid crunch.

The Kinetic Dampener trait absorbed the entire impact. He didn’t even bend his knees.

The surrounding players flinched and quickly backed away to give the Warlord a wide berth.

Declan casually strolled over to Sloane’s desk.

"Storage space is fixed," Declan said smoothly. He opened his administrative panel and transferred five million Origin Points directly into the city’s infrastructure budget.

"I just bought us ten new digital vault expansions. Dump the cores."

Sloane stared at her terminal as the available storage slots jumped from a few thousand to over fifty thousand. Her eyes went wide.

"Where did you get five million points?" Sloane asked completely baffled.

"I robbed the developers," Declan replied flatly. He looked around the busy gate area. "Where is Kendra?"

"I’m right here!"

Kendra jogged over from the western wall. The archer was wearing her standard green tactical vest but she looked exhausted. Her +10 Sniper Bow was slung over her shoulder.

"We just repelled another wave of Flesh-Stalkers at the perimeter," Kendra reported while wiping sweat from her forehead.

"The basic iron arrows are working but they don’t do enough damage. I have to shoot them three times just to drop their health bars."

Declan nodded. He knew her gear was falling behind.

"Give me the bow," Declan ordered.

Kendra didn’t hesitate. She unslung the black composite bow and handed it to him.

Declan didn’t even look at it. He just opened his digital inventory and tossed the +10 Sniper Bow inside. It vanished into blue pixels.

"Hey! That was my only weapon!" Kendra panicked.

"You don’t need it anymore," Declan said. He reached his right hand out into the empty air. "I brought you an upgrade."

The air in front of his hand violently distorted. The game engine screamed as it was forced to render a massively overpowered item into physical reality.

A heavy six-foot-long sniper rifle materialized perfectly into Declan’s grip.

It was made of sleek dark blue metal. It looked incredibly heavy.

Thick ice-blue energy coils wrapped around the long barrel and pulsed with a freezing lethal light.

He handed the massive weapon to Kendra.

The archer grabbed it with both hands. The sheer weight of the gun almost pulled her down to the floor. She gasped as the cold metal touched her skin.

"What is this?" Kendra whispered as she stared at the glowing scope.

"It’s an Emperor-tier ballistic weapon," Declan explained casually. "I looted it off a Level 100 boss. It fires super-cooled kinetic slugs. It doesn’t use bullets. It uses raw mana."

Kendra’s jaw dropped. "Emperor-tier? Declan, I can’t use this! My base Strength isn’t high enough to hold it steady and my mana pool will drain in two shots!"

"I know," Declan smiled. A cold ruthless expression flashed in his dark eyes. "That’s why I’m going to fix it."

He didn’t take the gun back. He just placed his hand flat against the cold metal barrel while Kendra was holding it.

"System," Declan commanded in his mind. "Apply Boundless Enhancement to the Cryo-Kinetic Annihilator. Push it to plus twenty. Burn the points."

He had a massive fortune sitting in his bank. Upgrading an Emperor-tier weapon was going to cost millions but he didn’t care.

The system chimes hammered rapidly inside his head.

[System Enhancement Initiated. Calculating cost...]

[Warning: Target weapon exceeds standard player tier limits.]

[Cost for +1 to +20: 8,000,000 Origin Points.]

"Take it," Declan ordered instantly.

Eight million points vanished from his treasury.

A blinding violent white light erupted from the heavy sniper rifle. The light was so intense that Kendra had to shut her eyes and turn her head away.

The familiar red warning boxes flooded Declan’s vision to scream about item shatter and server limits. His SSS-Rank talent completely crushed them into digital dust.

[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]

[Sniper Rifle +10... +15... +20.]

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]

The white light shifted violently. It turned into a deep freezing blue aura that instantly dropped the temperature in the courtyard.

Frost formed on the stone pavement beneath their feet.

The physical shape of the massive gun warped. The heavy metal slimmed down and became sleek and incredibly streamlined.

The blue energy coils fused directly into the barrel and glowed with a terrifying absolute cold.

The light faded.

Kendra opened her eyes and looked at the weapon in her hands. It didn’t feel heavy anymore. It felt perfectly balanced and almost weightless.

A new system prompt floated above the gun.

[Item Mutated: Absolute Zero Executioner +20]

↳ Tier: Sovereign Anomaly

↳ Functionality: Weapon weight requirement nullified. Mana cost removed. Fires conceptual slugs of absolute zero energy. Any target struck by this weapon has their physical movement speed permanently reduced to zero. Deals 500% true critical damage to frozen targets.

Kendra read the text three times. Her hands were physically shaking.

"Infinite ammo," Kendra breathed out. "And it permanently freezes anything it hits."

"You are my chief enforcer," Declan said smoothly. "I need you sitting on that wall and making sure nothing gets close to my city. Can you do that with this?"

Kendra looked up at him. A massive dangerous grin spread across her face. "I can lock down the entire sector with this."

"Good," Declan nodded. "Go find a high vantage point."

Kendra slung the terrifying sniper rifle over her shoulder and immediately sprinted toward the stairs leading up to the battlements.

Declan turned back to Sloane. The Quartermaster was just staring at him in sheer disbelief.

"You just spent eight million points to upgrade a gun for your scout," Sloane muttered. "You are completely insane."

"I am investing in base defense," Declan corrected her. He looked up at the sky.

The massive digital timer for the server merge was hovering faintly in the dark clouds above the city dome.

[Sector 6 Merge in: 48 Hours.]

"Bram!" Declan yelled out. His voice echoed across the courtyard toward the forges.

The Level 30 Master Artificer jogged over and wiped grease off his forehead with his black obsidian arm.

"Yes, Boss?" Bram grunted.

Declan pulled the glowing blue blueprint from his inventory and handed it to the old mechanic.

"I got the plans for Sovereign-tier Anti-Air Batteries," Declan stated. "And I have five hundred refined Sovereign Iron ingots sitting in the bank."

Bram looked at the blueprint. His eyes went wide with pure joy.

"We have two days before the Praetorian Guard and whatever else is in Sector 6 comes knocking," Declan said coldly.