Apocalypse Baby-Chapter 192: Tampering

[Stat Points Available: 12,920]

Alex glanced at the number again, making sure he wasn’t seeing things.

12,920 stat points. That was a ridiculous amount.

But now came the real question.

He needed 50 stat points to exchange for one upgrade stone using the Attribute Converter.

So how many upgrade stones could he get if he spent everything?

Alex raised a hand, tracing numbers in the air with his finger as he did the math.

12,920 divided by 50…

He calculated each step carefully, his lips moving silently as he double-checked the numbers.

Finally, he nodded.

"258." He muttered under his breath.

That was how many upgrade stones he could get.

And he’d still have 20 stat points left over.

A grin spread across Alex’s face.

Now for the next question—how many skills did he have in total?

Without wasting time, he summoned his skill window. A transparent screen flickered into view before him, listing all his abilities in neat rows.

His eyes darted across the list as he quickly counted.

28 skills.

Not bad.

Now came the real calculation.

If he wanted to upgrade every single skill from Rank E to Rank S, he’d need 5 upgrade stones per skill.

Alex did the math in his head.

28 skills × 5 upgrade stones = 140 stones.

That meant he had more than enough with his 258 stones.

But then—a thought hit him.

There was no way all of his skills were just E-rank.

Some of them were way too overpowered to be basic-ranked skills.

Skills like [One Shot One Kill], [Stone Face], [Black Flame], and [Foresight]—there was no way they were E-rank.

And that wasn’t even counting the new abilities he just unlocked.

"Hmm..."

Alex rubbed his chin, deep in thought. Something wasn’t adding up.

Now that he thought about it... he had never actually paid attention to the ranks of his skills when he first got them.

The only time he ever remembered seeing a rank attached to a skill was with [Exploding Touch]—his innate ability.

Why was that?

Even now, looking at his new abilities, none of them had ranks displayed next to them. But they had to, right? After all, he had successfully upgraded [Exploding Touch] to Rank S before.

So what was he missing?

His expression hardened.

His eyes locked onto one of his skills.

He squinted, focusing hard, as if willing the answer to reveal itself.

Something wasn’t right.

And he was going to find out why.

To an outsider, Alex probably looked like a madman—locked in an intense staring contest with... nothing.

But he didn’t care.

His gut told him something was off. And he trusted his gut.

And then...

His brows shot up.

He saw it.

A tiny icon sitting beside each of his skills. So small that it was barely noticeable.

No way...

Alex muttered under his breath, his heart pounding.

Without hesitation, he lifted his hand and pinched the air, expanding one of the icons with his fingers.

The system responded manually and through voice commands, but Alex was to entranced to say anything.

As the icon expanded, the truth was revealed.

There it was.

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

The skill ranking—right in front of him, clear as day.

Alex’s eyes widened. His breath hitched.

No way.

This was absurd.

Why was it hidden like this?

There was no way the system actually expected players to just know they had to manually enlarge the icons to see their skill ranks.

It made zero sense.

This wasn’t some random quirk of the system.

No—this was intentional.

And he knew exactly who was behind it.

Oracle.

That damned rabbit.

Alex exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair.

He was sure of it now.

This had Oracle’s annoying little fingerprints all over it.

"Seriously? This has to be the pettiest thing ever."

His voice dripped with irritation.

"Why even do this?"

It wasn’t like knowing his skill rankings gave him an unfair advantage. It was just basic information.

But no—Oracle just had to meddle.

The damned rabbit was hellbent on holding him back, throwing whatever minor inconveniences it could in his way.

Alex exhaled again, slower this time.

To be fair, he was basically a cheat at this point.

But still—

That wasn’t his fault.

He didn’t ask to be this broken.

He hadn’t asked for these advantages.

Hell, he hadn’t even expected to get any, given how crappy his luck had been back in the real world.

But now, the Overseer was out here targeting him like he had rigged the system himself.

And that?

That pissed him off.

Alex exhaled sharply, forcing himself to stay calm.

Fine. If they were going to mess with his interface, he’d just fix it himself.

He straightened his posture and spoke clearly.

"System, enlarge all of the shrunken skill rankings."

A chime rang through his mind.

The air in front of him shimmered, and then, with a chime, a fresh, fully expanded skill list appeared before him, displaying each skill’s true rank.

[Exploding Touch {S}] [Sonic Howl {C}] [Aegis Arcane {C}] [Slipstream {D}] [Stealth Walk {C}] [Blade Barrage {D}][Titan Fury {C}] [Vigor Strike {C}] [Fast and Furious {C}] [Night Vision {D}] [Minor Regen {C}] [Flame Immunity {C}] [Foresight {B}] [Stone Face {S}] [Earth Swim {B}] [Petrify {B}] [Minor Telekinesis {C}] [Earth Stomp {C}] [One Shot One Kill {S}] [Black Flame {A}] [Farsight {C}] [Blur {B}] [Multiplicity {A}] [Danger Sense {C}] [Domain {S}] [Illusion Resistance {B}][Summon ArchFiend {A}] [Predator’s Presence {C}]

Alex smirked.

There it was.

All the skills he had earned, ranked and properly displayed.

Now, for the real fun.

He tapped on the first ability he wanted to upgrade—

[Exploding Touch].

His strongest ability. The one skill that had saved him time and time again.

And now, he was about to make it even deadlier.

But there was more to it than just power.

He was curious.

He had already pushed this ability to S-rank, the highest tier he had ever seen.

But what lay beyond that?

Was there something even higher?

Alex cracked his knuckles and got to work.

First, he needed Upgrade Stones.

He quickly allocated 50 stat points to Agility—

And the effect was instant.

A sudden lightness spread through his body, like a helium balloon just about to lift off.

He flexed his fingers. His movements felt effortless, almost as if he could float with a single push off the ground.

Whoa.

But he didn’t have time to bask in the feeling.

This was just the first step.

Alex pulled up the converter interface and selected Agility as the stat he wanted to use for the exchange.

50 points.

With a swift confirmation, his stat points dropped, and a new item materialized in his inventory—An Upgrade Stone.

Alex then reached into his inventory and pulled out the Upgrade Stone.

The moment his fingers curled around it, a system notification flashed before his eyes.

[Would you like to use the Upgrade Stone on a skill?]

Alex didn’t hesitate.

"Yes."

Another prompt appeared.

[Select Skill]

Alex exhaled sharply. His heart pounded with excitement.

There was only one choice.

"Exploding Touch."

[Would you like to use the Upgrade Stone on Exploding Touch?]

His grip tightened around the stone.

He could feel a subtle energy pulsing from it, almost like it was waiting for his command.

Alex grinned.

"Yes."

The moment the word left his lips, anticipation flooded his system.

This was it.

If a rank beyond S existed, he was about to find out.

The system screen flashed.

[Upgrading...]

A tense pause.

[...]

Alex held his breath. His fingers twitched slightly.

[...]

He could feel it.

The Upgrade Stone was reacting, vibrating, as if something big was about to happen.

But...

[Upgrade Failed]

Alex froze.

The words didn’t register for a second.

Then...

POOF!

The Upgrade Stone in his hand crumbled into dust, slipping through his fingers like sand.

His expression darkened.

Confusion. Shock. Annoyance. All at once.

"What?... What the hell just happened?"

He stared at his now-empty hand, then back at the system screen.

The upgrade failed.

He didn’t even know that was possible.

But the worst part?

Fifty stat points—gone. Just like that.

If he had known this would happen, he would have poured those points into his attributes instead.

Before his frustration could boil over, the system flashed again.

[Ding!]

[You cannot upgrade a skill beyond S-rank using system mechanics]

[Try another skill.]

Alex exhaled, tension leaving his shoulders.

Honestly, he had expected something worse.

Maybe a 50-50 success rate, where each attempt had an equal chance of failing or succeeding. If that had been the case, he would have ended up wasting a ton of upgrade stones, throwing away hundreds—no, thousands—of stat points in the process.

But it wasn’t like that.

The system simply refused to upgrade past S-rank.

His eyes narrowed.

What this also meant was that if he hadn’t discovered that his skills had hidden ranks, he would have blindly wasted at least two more upgrade stones trying to level up [One Shot One Kill] and [Stone Face]

The thought alone made him click his tongue.

That damned rabbit.

Alex sighed, shaking his head.

It was disappointing that he couldn’t push [Exploding Touch] any further.

But, realistically speaking...

It was already insanely powerful.

So, he didn’t need to feel bitter about it.

He still had plenty of other skills to upgrade.

And he wasn’t about to waste any more time.