The players in the Galaxy Association hall stared at the hooded man, confused by his abrupt shift from ruthlessness to reconsideration.
"You?" Grace was stunned speechless. She had braced for a fight, not a surrender. The whole hall was silent, anticipating his final decree.
"Yes," the man stated firmly. He reached up, slowly pulling down the hood of his cloak, revealing striking, long silver hair and eyes that seemed to hold the cold light of distant stars.
"I cancel my mission," he repeated, his voice resonating with authority. "I don't care how much I will pay for compensation, but I canceled it." He turned his gaze to the stunned receptionist, Peter.
"I investigated, and discovered Spectral is currently the strongest player on this server, a clear anomaly. The bounty was a test of the server's maturity. Galaxy Fall's system reacted by setting the difficulty to S-rank, showing her extreme power level."
DING!
The World Announcement flared back to life, but this time, it was a sudden, system-wide upgrade of the threat level.
[Alert: The S-rank mission has been automatically upgraded to a SS-Rank mission!!!]
"Huh?!"
".....?!"
"What?!"
The man himself—and the entire hall—was stunned. The System, independent of the user, had calculated the risk again and found it exponentially higher.
'It increased?! SS-Rank is reserved for the defeat of high-level Kings or solving world-altering crises! Is she that powerful, or is the item she holds that critical?' the man thought in shock, his silver eyes narrowing.
Peter quickly checked the terminal. "Sir... Due to it now being a SS-RANK mission, the compensation fee for cancellation is automatically set by the system at two million gold coins."
The man calmly retrieved a small, shimmering golden card from his inner robe and tossed it onto the desk. It landed with a soft clink.
'A Higher World Transfer Card!' Peter recognized. 'Only high-level officials from the higher, more resource-rich servers carry these. They function as universal currency.' Peter quickly scanned the card with his Galaxy Bracelet and processed the withdrawal.
[Alert!! SS-RANK mission for Player Spectral have been cancelled. Apologies for your trouble.]
A collective sigh of relief swept the hall, except for Ethan and his group, who scowled at the loss of their guaranteed Legendary gear.
'Two million gold coins in an instant... He is not just a powerful player, he is someone with genuine influence across the Galaxy Fall economy,' thought Ethan, watching the exchange.
The stranger flicked his wrist, and a second card, dark obsidian with faint, glowing script, appeared. He handed it to a bewildered Grace.
"We will see each other again, Girl," he said. Before anyone could react, the air around him shimmered, and he vanished in a faint pulse of silver energy.
"Did... Did he just vanish?" Ken asked, his bravado utterly gone.
"What a foolish man! Wasting two million!" Ethan scoffed, turning to leave. "Mirabella must have hacked the system to gain that SS-RANK status. If I catch her, I will make sure she kneels," he muttered under his breath.
Grace finally looked down at the obsidian card in her hand. What she saw froze her in place. It wasn't a currency card; it was an Imperial Authority Pass—a direct communication line and an invitation to the Dragon Empire.
"It can't be..." she muttered, realizing the magnitude of the encounter.
___
Back on the desolate hill, Mirabella, Carl, and Cupcake received the notification.
[Alert!! SS-RANK mission have been cancelled. Apologies for your trouble.]
Mirabella blinked, the immediate reversal of fortune completely unexpected.
{Note: All Reputation has been restored to previous standing.}
'Who is so powerful to control the reputations of all three empires and cancel a System-enforced SS-Rank mission?' Mirabella's mind raced, pulling from her vast, salvaged knowledge.
'There are only three people apart from the Emperors who possess that kind of authority—the Master Teachers of the three Empires.'
"You must be Spectral."
The deep voice, laced with silver authority, came from their flank. Mirabella, Cupcake, and Carl whirled around to see the cloaked man, now standing openly a few meters away, his silver hair catching the setting sun.
{Name: Hayatobi Fabio.}
{Title (5): World Killer. Teacher of Swords. One Hit. Invincible. Demon Slayer.}
{Level: Lv189 (God Level).}
{Origin: Dragon Empire—Galaxy Fall.}
{Physical Attack: 1,890,000.}
{Agility: 1,000,000.}
{Defense: 2,000,000.}
{Health: 2,000,000.}
{Magic Attack: 1,890,000.}
{Spirit Energy: 5,000,000/5,000,000.}
{Bloodline: All.}
"HAYATOBI!!!!"
Mirabella's scream was a cacophony of horror, disbelief, and awe. She immediately jumped down from the hill, her earlier Demon persona discarded.
"Wow!! I can't believe it is you!!" Mirabella yelled, her eyes wide with carefully constructed enthusiasm.
Hayatobi, the God-Level Master Teacher, was genuinely surprised. "Oh? You know me?" He had expected fear, not this bizarre reaction.
"Of course! You're the great Hayatobi! The Master Teacher of the Dragon Nation! I am a huge fan!" she gushed, laying the groundwork for her maneuver.
"....?!!"
Cupcake and Carl stared, dumbfounded by this completely new, fawning side of their Senior Sister.
"I am impressed. It seems Spectral knows a lot about this world before even coming here," Hayatobi said, his silver eyes studying her.
"No, I don't know anything!" Mirabella lied smoothly, maintaining eye contact.
"I just read! I found a rare Archivist's Loot that granted me information about the whole three Empires and all powerful figures. I saw your name, read your deeds—the World Killer and Demon Slayer titles—and I was amazed. I even wanted to be like you!"
'I will be choosing the Dragon Empire soon,' she thought, her internal focus absolute. 'I need to have a good reputation with this man to secure an immediate, high-ranking entry.'
"Very well, Spectral," Hayatobi conceded. "You should already know when the server will upgrade, right?" This was a subtle probe for her anomaly status. The server merge was a top secret.
"I don't know," Mirabella lied again, maintaining ignorance.
"It will happen in one month," Hayatobi revealed, confirming the time for her.
'One month?!! So the weird time also affected the Server upgrade!!' She thought.
"I came here to see the character of your world's strongest players, and what I saw in the Galaxy Association already proved the greed of some... But you haven't shown me anything yet."
"What do you mean, Sir?" Mirabella asked, playing confused.
"You should try to defeat me," he challenged, his lips curving into a slight, dangerous smile. "Show me what the player who can raise a bounty to SS-Rank can truly do."
Mirabella frowned, feigning worry. "Really? What if I mistakenly kill you?"
Hayatobi's surprise was momentarily visible before he concealed it. 'Kill me? She is not even Level 50. How does she expect to kill a Level 189 Master Teacher?' He simply nodded.
"You can't kill me."
"Okay then! Here I go!" Mirabella seized the opportunity, instantly summoning her double swords and lunging forward with every ounce of her current strength, initiating a Full Force Attack without concealment.
'I can use him to test my true power ceiling against the top powers of the Empires,' she calculated, throwing caution to the wind.
"Impressive," Hayatobi murmured, but the compliment died on his lips.
His silver eyes instantly turned red, and his pupils split into three distinct points. In that instant, a chilling, absolute vision of their own deaths flashed into the minds of Mirabella, Carl, and Cupcake. They froze mid-lunge, a paralyzing, metaphysical horror gripping them to the core.
'This... Why... Why can't I move?!' Mirabella thought, her muscles trembling with the futile effort of movement. She stared at her hands, pushing with every fragment of her will.
'This isn't a Stun, or Paralysis, or even a Sleep status effect... What ability did he use?! It feels like my own future is stopping me!' she asked herself in absolute horror, completely overpowered by a God-Level ability she couldn't even name.