Declan opened his eyes. The first thing he felt was the freezing cold.

He didn’t wake up in a cramped prison cell or the dirt of a toxic wasteland. He was lying on a massive king-sized bed inside the luxurious penthouse of his central keep.

He looked to his right.

Aegis was still lying next to him.

The Level 80 System Defense Entity had built herself a physical body overnight. She was made entirely of sleek metal. Glowing purple energy lines pulsed along her arms and neck to perfectly mimic a human heartbeat.

She was staring at the ceiling with bright blue optical sensors.

"You are literally an ice pack," Declan grumbled. He pulled the thick silk blanket higher up his chest.

Aegis slowly turned her head. Her face was perfectly sculpted, completely expressionless, and entirely made of cold metal.

"Good morning, Boss," Aegis replied. Her voice was smooth and synthetic, and it carried a faint trace of pride. "My internal cooling systems must operate at maximum efficiency. It is the only way to safely contain the Abyssal Leviathan data I copied from your neural link."

Declan cracked his neck. "Okay, now move."

Aegis didn’t argue. She sat up smoothly. She didn’t move like a clunky robot. Her advanced servos were completely silent. She stepped off the bed and stood perfectly straight.

"I have compiled the overnight data," Aegis reported while standing at attention.

"Let’s hear it," Declan said. He sat up and rubbed his face.

"The Iron Bastion is entirely secure. The automated turrets generated by Master Artificer Bram are functioning flawlessly. We successfully vaporized four thousand and twelve low-level Flesh Stalkers that attempted to approach the energy dome during the night."

Declan nodded. "And the economy?"

"Quartermaster Sloane has processed over two hundred thousand Origin Points from the refugee hunting parties. The tax collection rate is at absolute maximum efficiency."

Declan smiled. Passive income was the best kind of income.

He didn’t have to go out into the mud and swing a heavy iron halberd to farm points anymore. He had an entire city of thousands of desperate gamers doing it for him. He just sat back and collected the rent.

"Good," Declan said. He swung his legs over the side of the bed.

He willed his digital inventory to open.

His clothes instantly materialized over his body. The pitch-black Predator’s Coat settled heavily on his shoulders. The +10 Spiked Striders locked onto his feet.

He didn’t feel heavy. He didn’t feel sluggish.

His physical body possessed the raw density of a collapsing star, but his Abyssal Sovereign stats made him feel as light as a feather.

He walked past Aegis and headed out to the high stone balcony.

The view was absolutely incredible.

A massive transparent purple energy dome covered the entire city. It pushed back the toxic rain and the dark smog-choked clouds of Sector 7.

Down in the massive courtyard, thousands of players were already awake. They were running around like busy ants.

Declan watched a group of ten refugees carrying heavy wooden carts full of monster parts. They were heading straight for Sloane’s mahogany desk near the main gates.

They looked exhausted and covered in digital blood and mud, but they looked incredibly happy. They had survived the night. They had paid their entry tax.

"Boss," a tired voice called out from the doorway.

Declan turned around.

Sloane walked onto the balcony. The Quartermaster looked like she hadn’t slept at all. She was holding a glowing digital clipboard and sipping from a tin cup of dark coffee.

Kendra walked right behind her with her +10 Sniper Bow slung casually over her shoulder.

"Morning, Quartermaster," Declan said smoothly. "You look terrible."

"I have been organizing spreadsheets for ten hours straight," Sloane grumbled. She leaned heavily against the cold iron railing. "Do you have any idea how much junk gear three thousand people can farm in one night?"

"A lot?" Declan guessed.

"Too much," Sloane sighed. "My inventory logs are completely full. I had to build three new physical warehouses near the forges just to store all the rusted swords and low-tier monster cores."

"Sell them on the Global Auction House," Declan suggested.

"I am trying," Sloane rubbed her temples. "But the market is completely flooded. The server merge changed everything. Players from Sector 6 and Sector 5 are dumping their trash gear too. Prices are tanking."

Declan frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that.

He opened his own system interface. He checked his personal treasury balance.

[System Resources]

↳ Origin Points: 42,500,000

He had forty-two million points sitting in the bank. It was an astronomical fortune. He was richer than the actual game developers at this point.

But Declan wasn’t satisfied. He needed more.

If he wanted to push his Level 75 cap, he needed to buy Sovereign-tier items. He needed to fund his Boundless Enhancement talent. And pushing an item to +40 cost millions of points a pop.

"We need higher-tier loot," Declan stated flatly. "We need to hit a major dungeon."

"Funny you should mention that," a cold and sharp voice sounded from the penthouse.

Nova walked out onto the balcony.

The elite corporate hacker looked much better than she had yesterday. She was wearing a sleek brand-new silver tactical suit she had bought off the market. Her icy blue hair was tied back in a perfect ponytail.

Morgan walked beside her. The top-tier assassin was spinning a combat knife around her fingers and looking completely bored.

"What did you find, hacker?" Declan asked while leaning back against the railing.

"The global chat is going absolutely crazy," Nova said. She tapped her wrist interface. A glowing blue screen projected into the air in front of Declan.

"The Great Convergence didn’t just merge the sectors," Nova explained while pointing at the scrolling text. "It unlocked the quarantine zones. The developer stashes."

Declan’s dark eyes narrowed. "Developer stashes?"

"The Blacksite Vaults," Morgan chimed in. She stopped spinning the knife. "Apex Paradigm built dozens of hidden servers across the Grid. They used them to store experimental gear, illegal code, and Sovereign-tier weapons."

"Items that were never meant to be released to the public," Nova added. "Items that break the game balance entirely."

Declan let out a low dark laugh.

"I love breaking game balance," Declan smiled. "Where is the nearest one?"

"That is the problem," Nova said as her expression turned serious. She swiped her hand to bring up a massive holographic map of the merged Earth.

The map showed the ruined continents. Sector 7 was just a tiny dot on the eastern seaboard.

Nova zoomed in on a location about five hundred miles away. It was a massive glowing red zone surrounded by deep canyons.

[Location: The Aero Wing, Blacksite Vault 04]

"It is located deep in the neutral territories," Nova explained. "And we are not the only ones who know about it."

"Let me guess," Declan said smoothly. "Another corporate guild wants my loot."

"Worse," Sloane groaned while looking at the map. "Sector 1 is making a move."

Declan raised an eyebrow. "Sector 1?"

"The pristine sector," Kendra whispered as her eyes went wide. "The place where all the billionaires, celebrities, and megacorp CEOs live. They didn’t get hit by the Purge Wave like we did. They bought their way out of it."

Declan looked at the glowing red dot on the map.

He didn’t care about billionaires. He didn’t care about celebrities.

He cared about Sovereign-tier items. He cared about pushing his Abyssal Sovereign class to the absolute limit.

"Aegis," Declan called out without turning around.

The metallic AI stepped out onto the balcony. "Yes, Boss?"

"You are in charge of city defense while I am gone," Declan ordered. "Keep the dome powered. If anyone who doesn’t belong to the Eclipse Legion tries to step foot inside my city, vaporize them."

"Understood," Aegis replied. Her blue optical lenses flared with a lethal light. "Lethal force authorized."

The others were shocked to see the new girl.

Declan looked at his Warlord squad. He looked at Sloane, Kendra, Morgan, and Nova.

"Sloane, Kendra," Declan pointed at them. "You two stay here. Manage the refugees. Keep the iron flowing to Bram’s forges."

"Gladly," Sloane let out a massive sigh of relief. "I am not going anywhere near a developer vault."

"Morgan, Nova," Declan shifted his gaze to the assassin and the hacker. "You two are with me. We are going shopping."

Nova simply nodded. She was a professional. She went where the high-tier loot was.

Morgan twirled her combat knife and smirked. "Just like old times. Except this time, we aren’t running from the boss."

Declan shoved his hands into his coat pockets. He looked out over the massive black iron walls of his city. He looked at the dark toxic wasteland waiting for him outside.

He had forty-two million points to burn, and a developer stash with his name on it.

"Let’s go steal some code," Declan smiled.