[System Notification: Phase 3 Instance Quest successfully completed.] [Total Time Elapsed: 00:00:08] [Mission Clearance Rating: Perfect] [Congratulations!
You have successfully cleared the Personal Initiation Trial Instance: Black Rock Wasteland (Nightmare difficulty).] [Commencing endgame reward calculation.] The cold synthetic voice resounded clearly in Leon’s ears.
The visual landscape of boiling lava and chaotic elemental turbulence left behind by the collapse of the Fire Dragon Emperor began to blur, dissolving into the void like a faded oil painting.
In its place, several brilliant pillars of radiant golden light suddenly erupted within the darkness, so intense they threatened to blind the naked eye.
As the golden glare gradually receded, several high-value items floated silently in front of Leon’s chest.
The first item to catch his eye was a dark, ancient card crafted from a mysterious material that felt neither like metal nor wood.
The edges of the card shimmered with a soft, ethereal luminescence resembling stardust, while the absolute center bore a simple yet infinitely profound three-dimensional symbol that seemed to actively loop the birth and death of miniature cosmos.
Simply gazing upon it triggered a psychological wave of vastness and ancient majesty, as if staring into the primordial wilderness of time itself.
[Item: Invitation from the Creator God] [Level Requirement: Level 25 and below] [Description: Upon activation, the holder is granted one-time access to a specialized hidden instance dungeon.
Successfully clearing the hidden instance yields astronomical rewards in experience points, base attributes, advanced skills, or ultra-rare crafting components.
Furthermore, this unique instance contains a direct operational clue regarding the current coordinates of a Sequence Artifact.] [System Note: This card serves as an entry ticket to the highest mysteries of the cosmos, but it remains a highly perilous trial.
Those lacking supreme luck, unyielding perseverance, and absolute wisdom should proceed with extreme caution.] “A direct clue to a Sequence Artifact…” Leon’s breath hitched slightly in his throat.
The true value of an item like this simply could not be measured by standard economic metrics.
In the eyes of the sovereign global empires and supreme factions ruling the Endless Continent, any verified data point regarding a Sequence Artifact was worth trading multiple sets of endgame Mythic gear or an entire national territory for.
This was an explosive asset capable of launching international wars and driving the strongest powerhouses on earth into complete madness.
Forcing his racing pulse to settle, Leon turned his gaze toward the remaining two primary equipment rewards.
One was a sleek, unblemished white gold ring pulsing with a flowing, sacred halo.
The other was a dark crimson heavy bracelet that looked as if it had been forged from condensed subterranean magma, its outer surface traced with natural, intricate engravings of a coiled dragon.
[Equipment: Ring of Holy Light] [Quality: Legendary High Grade] [Type: Jewelry (Ring)] [Attributes: Spirit +1,000] [Active Skill: Divine Purification — Consumes a baseline of mental energy to project a cleansing aura onto a single target, instantaneously erasing almost every tier of negative status effect, including high-level curses, lethal toxins, freezing, paralysis, psychological fear, and cognitive confusion.
Cooldown: 30 minutes.] [Equipment: Fire Dragon Emperor’s Blessing Bracelet] [Quality: Legendary High Grade] [Type: Jewelry (Bracelet)] [Attributes: Strength +1,000] [Passive Skill: Fire Dragon’s Wrath — Permanently upscale the final destructive output of all fire-attribute combat skills by an absolute value of 15%.] Two consecutive pieces of Legendary High Grade jewelry.
The raw attribute modifiers were incredibly straightforward and heavy, and their attached skill effects sat at the absolute pinnacle of their item class.
If either of these pieces were placed on a premium international auction block, the opening bid would easily sit at a baseline of three hundred million credits—and collectors would still consider it a bargain.
Floating alongside these three core rewards were fifteen crystal-clear, multi-faceted gem spheres, their transparent matrixes holding liquid energy that actively flowed like glowing quicksilver.
[Consumable: High-Grade Energy Crystal x 15] High-grade energy crystals possessed an incredibly broad spectrum of industrial and military utility.
The current baseline market value for a single crystal hovered around one million credits.
These fifteen spheres alone secured an instant payout of fifteen million credits.
When combined with the legendary jewelry sets and the supreme value of the Creator God’s invitation, the economic haul Leon had pulled from a single initiation trial was a fortune that ordinary professionals would struggle a lifetime to accumulate.
[System Notification: The initialization sequence has concluded.] [System Notification: The host will be automatically teleported out of the temporary instance dimension in exactly sixty seconds.] Leon systematically stored the entire haul inside his spatial ring before opening the Starry Sky broadcaster interface to review his final metrics.
The active concurrent user counter in the upper right corner of his screen had officially smashed past the four hundred million milestone, the traffic graph stabilizing into a steady, massive plateau.
“Alright, everyone,” Leon cleared his throat, addressing the lens with a calm, measured tone.
“This officially concludes the livestream broadcast of my personal initiation trial.
Thank you all for your time and support.” The moment the words left his lips, the chat log violently erupted into a synchronized wall of text.
“No!
God Leon!
Please don’t go offline yet!
Keep the camera rolling!” “Watching you and the Poetry-Reciting Blademaster bully an endgame boss was the most therapeutic thing I’ve seen all year!
I demand a secondary stream of you clearing a team instance!” “I literally just sat down with my snacks and drinks, and you are hitting the kill switch?!
I am aggressively thrashing on my floor in sheer protest right now!” “Ah!
I just joined the fandom!
I haven’t had anywhere near enough time to admire my blademaster’s aesthetic!” “Father Leon!
Please!
We are begging you!
Just queue up for another dungeon!” “A hundred million users are officially signing a digital petition for an encore!” Watching the display fill with a chaotic barrage of user wails, comedic begging, and hysterical demands, Leon merely flashed a brief, relaxed smile.
His vocal delivery remained gentle yet completely unyielding.
“Perhaps another time, if the opportunity presents itself.
Stay safe, everyone.” Without granting the massive mob another second to throw tantrums in his comment feed, he cleanly severed the transmission link, shutting down his broadcast channel permanently.
The surrounding visual matrix shifted rapidly, accompanied by the familiar, brief vertigo of trans-dimensional transit.
When his equilibrium stabilized and his vision cleared, a deafening, thunderous roar that sounded like a localized tsunami instantly slammed into his eardrums.
“He’s cleared it!
God Leon is out!” “There he is!
Right at the central teleportation node!
Move, move!
Surround the perimeter!” “Ah!
I can see the Great Master!
He is genuinely so handsome in person!” “Hubby!
Look over here!
Ah!” “Where is the Poetry-Reciting Blademaster?!
I want to apprentice under him and learn how to recite epic poetry with a katana in my teeth!” “Stop blocking the lane!
Let me through!
I just want to touch his coat once!
Just a single touch!” “Stop pushing me!
Someone literally stepped my shoe off!” “Students, lock your arms!
Maintain the line at all costs!” A hoarse, violently fracturing shout managed to cut through a fraction of the structural chaos.
Principal Vance was leading the security defense.
The headmaster had completely lost his standard, dignified military posture; his face was a deep crimson, his neck muscles were taut, and the veins across his forehead bulged aggressively as he barked orders.
He was actively directing a heavy contingent of robust male students who had recently completed their own class transitions.
They had locked their hands together, forming a crooked yet incredibly resilient human barricade to insulate Leon from the fanatical crowd.
“Classmates, hold the wall!” Principal Vance screamed into the noise.
“This young man is a supreme talent, the fourth recognized living legend of the human race, and the ultimate pride of our high school!
He is your absolute Godfather, and we cannot permit a single degenerate to exploit him or compromise his safety!” “We swear to defend our Godfather to the absolute death!” the student vanguard roared back in a unified shout, their faces turning red as they pushed back with all their kinetic mass against the crushing weight of the fanatical mob.
Positioned near the absolute center of the human barricade, one exceptionally massive silhouette stood out prominently—it was Zachary.
He was currently caught in a horrific state of physical duress, his heavy biceps bulging tightly as he desperately attempted to absorb the momentum of the pushing crowd, letting out a series of agonizing groans.
“My dear Father!
Leon!
Ancestor Leon!
You are finally out of the rift!
Get moving right now, I can’t hold this line much longer!
These people are absolute savages!” The moment Leon anchored his balance on the stone platform, his eyes locked onto Zachary’s deeply strained expression and the near-limitless ocean of fanatical citizens rioting outside the perimeter.
His lips twitched in mild amusement.
The physical fallout of his digital metric explosion was significantly more chaotic than his baseline predictions.
“A giant of your physical proportions can’t even police a basic student crowd?” Leon shot him a mock-disdainful glance.
“You are truly slacking on your gym routine.” “You don’t understand the tactical parameters here, man!” Zachary wailed back, his eyes widening.
“Someone just explicitly used the spatial confusion to grope my backside!
And it was definitively a guy!” Leon: “…” There are actually aggressive deviants embedded within this fan pool?
This is an immediate security crisis.
I need to evacuate this sector right now.
“Summon.” A dark green silhouette materialized out of thin air beside his shoulder.
It was Zoro.
His sudden physical manifestation, complete with his distinct samurai attire and bare skeletal framework, immediately triggered an even more hysterical tier of screaming from the crowd outside.
“The Poetry-Reciting Blademaster!” “Master!
Accept my submission!
Teach me the secret technique of reciting classical literature while holding a sword in my jaw!” Completely ignoring the surrounding digital and physical noise, Zoro turned his glowing crimson soul fires toward Leon.
Within the next fraction of a second, the skeleton extended his heavy bone claws, firmly seizing Leon by both shoulders before bending his knees to compress his skeletal joints.
Boom!
The concrete platform beneath their boots fractured slightly under the sudden release of kinetic force.
Zoro, securely carrying Leon in his grip, launched straight into the air like a high-velocity artillery shell, leaping directly through the open architectural dome of the stadium and vanishing into the clouds.
This aerial extraction left the tens of thousands of fans below frozen in a collective state of shock and deep disappointment.
Instead of navigating a direct path back to his apartment—realizing his front entrance had been reduced to metal scraps by Claire and that fanatical stalkers would likely ambush his residential perimeter—Leon directed Zoro to execute a controlled descent into a quiet, neglected alleyway located within Mountcrest City’s central business district.
The moment his boots touched the pavement, he reached into his spatial inventory, pulling out a dark trench coat, a wide-brimmed hat, and a heavy face mask he had prepared beforehand.
He donned the disguise, adjusted his collar to obscure his facial features, and confidently stepped out of the alleyway to blend seamlessly into the bustling civilian crowd.
With his next operational objective firmly locked into his thoughts, he marched straight toward one of the most imposing, architecturally dominant skyscrapers towering over the commercial sector: the corporate headquarters of the Radiant Alliance Chamber of Commerce.