Chug the remote aside, the teen paid no mind to his younger brothers who immediately dove after it like Olympic divers, tumbling in a tangled mess.

  On his room, he tossed his bag carelessly to the side, colpsed onto his bed, and slipped a Tootsie Pop into his mouth. Fishing his pho of his pocket, he began scrolling through the test trending articles: Godlike Hacker or the Luckiest Pyer Alive?, Haxks: Dev M in Disguise?, and Enigma of the tury. His finger hovered briefly before settling on The Mysterious Noob! How Do We Find Him? With a faint smirk, he tapped the headline and scrolled straight to the ents se.

  [WillyWanka: First! ??

  Chipper-skipper: So do we have any leads on this guy?

  ButtonMasher101: Maybe xiang qiyun has a side chick who mao get her hands on the master key or some’m ??

  Noob: Who’s Xiang Qiyun?

  Resper: Who’s Xiang Qiyun? Lmao! This moron must have just crawled out from underh a rock or something ??

  Vag-Smasher: @Noob: Brah ????

  DarkInvader: @Noob: Bro, Xiang Qiyun is the wizard who made SO! How could you not know this? Do you even py the game?!

  This post has been removed.

  PunIntended: Guys, let’s not stray from the main topic—has anyone ever seen this Haxks guy before? Is he a pyer or npc?

  TickleMeElmo: I’ve been following this guy since he cleared that first lvl 1 hidden dungeon. Siheaken down five field bosses and a named monster. Spread out over a few years, that’d be impressive enough—but in a single day? No way. There’s got to be more to this story.

  Shellshock99: Wait. Isn’t #haxks the same persoioned in another ret post? Something about him being a scammer and pker?

  Sdalbag: you drop a link to that post? ??

  Shellshock99: Here’s a hyperlink. You’re wele: ?Osten’s Post?

  Sdalbag: You’re kidding! Is that really him in the sshot? But he’s dressed like a noob… and he’s out there owning field bosses?!

  LOLLord: Pretty sure no npc would heir damn kid Haxks. This guy’s evidently a pyer, and his username is that of a hacker. Mystery solved—bro’s obviously found a way to hack the game ??

  I_Squanched_Your_Mom: Well, I’m not buying it. Aphiniti’s way too advao let any kind of cheating slide, and the devs have already assured us that SO is hack-proof. Maybe this pyer has a unique skill—or maybe they stumbled onto a new branch of the game’s Mailihat triggers rare enters.

  HeartS!ayer: Check out the brains on this bloke ??

  OG0verlord: Instead of throwing around theories, I think we should just ask this bastard in person. He ’t just be hogging all the glory for himself; he o share the spotlight with the rest of us—and, of course, by us I mean me.

  NinjaNoodles: The guilds are pretty riled up right now. My friends are dying to find out who this guy is, you have no idea!

  kiSSm@gRITS: Me and my buddies are loading up on potions as we speak. We’re gonna spawn-kill this nerd until he spills everything! You turds stay here chatting away with your thumbs up yer ass ????

  ChuckleChaser: It’s kool that everyone wants to interrogate and murder this poor bastard, but does anyone even know where to start looking?

  Professor_Farnsworth: GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! I’ve figured out Haxks’ location in seds ft. You all should feel hohat I’m sparing even a sliver of my brain cells for your little cause. Four years ago, PunkyBrewster killed the Exiled Hilitroll Chief, remember? They posted about it o—said it was in the Arium Kingdom. There you go! Now, get in lio thank me!

  PelvicThrust: This annoying narcissist may be on to something.

  Anonymous_Tipper: Haxks’ st known location is the Nashua Forest northeast of Wonderelle in the Arium Kingdom.

  TickleMeElmo: If it’s @Anonymous_Tipper, then the information must be legit. Gon this to the guild ASAP!

  NinjaNoodles: Wayy ahead of you! ??]

  As Daisuke’s feats sent shockwaves through the virtual world, they hadn’t gone unnoticed by a certain guild. In a spacious office around a sprawling elm desk sat Drake Ashborne, master of the Dragonsbane guild. His expression was a blend of chagrin and intrigue as he sifted through trending posts on Sehrei Online’s unity boards.

  Just a few months back, the pyer Haxks had not only discovered but cleared the first level-one Hidden Dungeon in the game. Back then, Drake had dismissed the feat as dumb luck. But now it was obvious—Haxks’ aplishment was no act. If he had syed a single Exiled Hilitroll Chief sometime ter, Drake might still have chalked it up to sheer luck, but this was evidently something more… much more.

  “I should’ve looked into him the moment he cleared that dungeon,” he muttered, fists ched tight in frustration. “Now the whole world’s caught wind of him.”

  “You’re being too hard on yourself,” soled the Vice-Guildmaster, tilting her curved witch hat to hold the man’s dejected gaze. “There’s no way you could’ve known.”

  Drake frowned, refusing to be soled. “That’s not good enough. Our members rely oo lead them to greatness; I ’t afford to slip up—and this particur mistake’s going to cost us big time.”

  In Sehrei Online, sed to top-tier skills, powerful equipment was what defined a pyer—and individuals who had both advantages were the absolute titans and pioneers of the game. These elite pyers could not only tackle and quer uncharted territories but also cim lucrative dungeons and drive the game’s main storyline forward. Such achievements elevated them to powerhouse status, making them nearly impossible to u from their lofty ranks in the long run.

  As a result, the top guilds operated like ravenous vultures, always on the hunt for ways to solidate power and outmaheir rivals. Haxks emerged as the perfect catalyst for their ambitions. If it was truly possible for him to locate the elusive Hidden Dungeons and Field Bosses, their wealth and influence could multiply expoially, attrag a flood of prospective members to their ranks—all within an astonishingly brief timeframe.

  Drake csped his fingers beh his , a pensive look crossing his face. If I’d trusted my instincts, I would’ve had someone iigate this guy before the whole server was out to get him. Now, it’s a race against time.

  “Your orders?” the mage asked, reizing the familiar, calg look in her Guildmaster’s eyes.

  Ign the question for now, the man summoned a holographic s with a flick of his fingers, navigating to the guild menu. His gaze fell to the list of members where the name “S?ulEat?r” glowed, signaling the pyer was currently online. Without hesitatioapped the name and began typing out a private message.

  ***

  Moonlight cast an eerie glow as an assassin stepped forward, his expression carved in stone, eyes dark and void of mercy. His grip tightened on a massive scythe as he took one fluid step and vanished.

  A bandit screamed as the bde sshed through his spine in an instant, his body colpsing to the ground in two halves. The others barely had time to turn before the assassihe scythe low, the edge slig through tendons, flesh, and bone. Limbs thudded to the ground, blood painting the earth i, crimson strokes.

  The reaper moved again, the scythe gleaming in the moonlight as it carved through the air. Its curved bde caught another bandit by the throat, hoisting him like a rag doll before tearing back with a single, savage motion. Blood sprayed, spttering across the assassin’s face, yet his cold gaze remained unged.

  One bandit, paralyzed in terror, tried to flee, but the assassin glided forward, his footfalls silent as death itself. With a flick of his wrist, he swung the scythe in a deadly arc, the edge burying itself deep in the man’s chest. A twist of the handle, and his target’s heart ruptured with a siing ch.

  Hieeek! The final bandit stumbled back, colpsing in terror, the crotch of his pants darkening in color as he peed himself.

  But the harbinger of death wasn’t swayed by sympathy. Without a word, his dark eyes exuded a adness as he raised his rge and imposing on. The bandit’s panic-stri face was captured perfectly in its gleaming edge.

  As siletled over the age, only the assassin remaianding. His gaze was distant, unfazed, until a soft chime drew his attention to a notification i. Yanking the scythe from the bandit’s empty eye socket, he casually drove it into the ground, theed himself on the chest of the corpse. Indifferent to the blood-soaked se around him, he opehe message waiting in his inbox.

  [Drake: I have a high-priority recruitment assig for you. It’s time-sensitive. Are you avaible right now?]

  ***

  [S?ulEat?r: Sorry, boss—caught up in an S-css quest that’ll take several more weeks.]

  Drake exhaled slowly. The fruits of his blunder were already baring their fangs, but he wasn’t just about to throw iowel. S?ulEat?r was the perfect didate for this particur kind of job, but he was currently preoccupied. And if he went as far as to refuse an urgent request from the Guildmaster, theakes for his ongoing quest must be pretty extraordinary.

  Closing the chat window, Drake noticed an unread message from his younger brother, Osten, buried among the sea of mail from other pyers. Normally, he’d ig, but his instincts said otherwise, and this time he listened.

  Sifting through the usual mountain of annoying pints and requests, his eyes eventually nded on a sshot with a headlihat instantly seized his focus: “Haxks Starfrost—Scammer & Pker!”

  So… this is what he looks like.

  Drake’s eyes widened briefly as he scrutihe image. At a gnce, he was able to dis that the pyer’s low-level attire didn’t correte with the extraordinary feats he had been achieving on his own. Clearly, he was wearing unassuming equipment to mask his true level and capabilities to maintain a low profile.

  The Leaderboard had recorded him at level one when he cleared that Hidden Dungeon. Assuming he’d been pying solo sihen, his level couldn’t realistically be above 25. Si oor etiquette for raet and bully lower-level pyers, Drake decided to send one of his newer, lower-ranked captains to approach Haxks for recruitment.

  “I need you to reach out to Jad bring him up to speed,” Drake instructed, a sly grin f on his lips. “To at for unknown variables, it’d be wise to have reinforts in pce. But rather than risk drawing attention by sending our own guild members, let’s tract a group of meraries.

  Jace’s mission is simple: get this pyer to join the guild, whatever it takes. If he resists, turn up the pressure—threaten him with harassment and bckmail. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll keep spawn-killing him until he either surrenders or quits the game. If we ’t lock him down as one of our own, then we’ll make sure no one else gets the ce to.”

  The mage’s expression morphed into a sinister grin, the fa?ade of her earlier innoce vanishiirely. “I’ll reach out to Jace right away,” she promised, her voice dripping with determination as she turo leave.