The most dangerous place in the world, Agamenticus Rialto thought bitterly, was the main town square of Sasabaru Town.
It was a nightmare of sound and color, a crowded bottleneck of low-level humanity. The air hummed with the incessant, high-pitched chatter of players, the clamor of vendor stalls, and the faint, menacing thrum of the towering, monolithic System Tower that dominated the skyline.
Agamenticus, the Lvl 18,523 Final Boss of the entire realm, was currently attempting to purchase a cloak in his human-sized disguise. His stats were godlike: Infinite HP, Infinite MP, and an overwhelming suite of forbidden Time and Frost Affinities. Yet, he was sweating. Why? Because his Defense stat was a pathetic 10. Numerically identical to the Lvl 1 player standing two feet to his left.
"I only need this garment to appear less conspicuous," he muttered under his breath, adjusting his dark, expensive commoner's tunic. "And then we can retreat to the seclusion of the woods, where I am only threatened by every high-level mob in the region, rather than every clumsy insect in a three-mile radius."
He glanced over at his companions.
Royson Eubhara, the actual secret prince, looked like a high-strung accountant in his neat, gray Cleric robes. He was currently attempting to organize a disorganized map on a nearby notice board.
Susan Zenia, the clumsy Level 40 archer with a devastating damage output, was the source of his current anxiety. She was standing a few feet away, showing off her ridiculously powerful bow to a group of wide-eyed beginners.
"—and if you hold it like this," Susan was saying, gesturing wildly, "the pull-back tension is maximized! Don't worry, it's not charged yet."
Royson hissed her name, his voice razor-sharp: "Zenia! Put the weapon away! We are in a Sasabaru Town safe zone! We do not need a three-digit repair bill to compound our current procedural crises!"
Susan rolled her eyes and took one final, decisive step back to demonstrate the bow's length. Unfortunately, the town planner had installed a decorative, mossy cobblestone exactly where she stepped.
She stumbled.
Her hand, already poised near the grip, flew forward.
A massive, glowing arrow—clearly carrying enough kinetic energy to annihilate a Lvl 50 raid boss—was accidentally launched.
Agamenticus's dragon instinct, honed by millennia of high-stress encounters, reacted before his human brain registered the sound. His eyes flashed from blood Red to a terrifying, crackling Icy Blue.
That is a crit. My Defense 10 cannot survive the systemic shock. I must evade.
He micro-dosed his most dangerous, forbidden power: the Temporal Echo. He didn't rewind time, only his personal location—a fraction of a foot, a blink-and-you-miss-it flicker of space-time.
CRACK-WHOOM!
The arrow missed the back of his exposed skull by millimeters, only snagging the edge of his hood. The projectile, now carrying the entirety of Susan's high damage output, slammed into the heavily reinforced stone wall of the Armory shop.
A sound like thunder broke the relative clamor. The wall did not crumble—VRMMO structure integrity was too high—but it now housed a smoking, black, craterous hole that immediately sent players scattering and set off every local anti-damage alarm in the square.
Agamenticus managed to bring the Icy Blue flash under control, his eyes returning to red. He was shaking. He had nearly been ended by the incompetence of a brat whose level was too low to even challenge the first tier of Final Boss minion.
"Insects! I was nearly ended by the chaos of a swamp slug!" he spat, turning on Susan. "Zenia. You just cost us three hundred gold in repairs. You are a liability. If you ever threaten my core process again, I will leave you in a Soskano Woods ravine."
Royson, meanwhile, was already in damage control.
"Susan, for the love of the game logic! I told you not to fire that weapon inside the safe zone!" Royson frantically began pulling up his menu. "Did anyone see that? Did anyone log a Temporal Distortion signature?!"
"I was showing the beginners how fast my DPS is!" Susan protested, rubbing her shin. "I just tripped on that stupid moss rock!"
Just as Royson was about to unleash a tirade about negligence and maintenance reports, a cold, analytical voice cut through the panicking crowd.
"You won't need to worry about the repair bill, Mister Eubhara. The Administration will log the property damage."
Agent Hina, wearing the crisp, non-player uniform of the G-Force, stepped up to the smoking crater. She ignored the obvious, catastrophic arrow damage. Her focus was entirely on the anomaly.
"Excuse me," Hina said, looking directly at Agamenticus, who immediately felt the chill of deep system analysis in her gaze. She was a procedural hunter, and he was the glitch. "Our local logs show a slight Temporal Displacement Error centered at this location, exactly 0.5 seconds before the structural damage. No player skill exists for that function."
She leveled her gaze at him. "Sir, would you mind providing your Player ID?"
Agamenticus went rigid. To give his ID was to give her the key to the Lvl 18,523 anomaly. He could not fight her here. He was trapped.
Royson, however, stepped in with the smooth confidence of a true noble who rarely had to use his authority, but knew exactly when to deploy it.
"Apologies, Agent," Royson said smoothly, stepping between Hina and Agamenticus. "My cousin, he's just... naturally clumsy, too. As for the ID, we've just come from a deep dungeon. The system is still buffering and locking him out."
Royson opened his menu and dropped a heavy coin purse into Hina's hand. "Here, let me pay for the damage and any inconvenience. I'm Royson Eubhara, authorized account. I assure you, we're heading straight to the Soskano Woods to clear up our equipment logs and our friend's temporary system issue."
Hina's eyes narrowed slightly, acknowledging the significant family name—a minor complication, but a complication nonetheless. She accepted the money, but her analytical gaze never left Agamenticus.
"The Eubhara Line is known for its discipline, Mister Eubhara," Hina said, the warning clear in her voice. "We will log your trajectory. Do not leave the zone specified for your level. The next time I log a system anomaly, I will use administrative power to force a system-wide Player ID check."
"Understood," Royson said, shoving Agamenticus and Susan toward the South Gate. "We look forward to enjoying the Level 11-20 content."
The three of them fled Sasabaru Town, leaving the chaos behind them.
Agamenticus, striding out through the South Gate toward the dark, looming trees of the Soskano Woods, felt his infinite HP mattered not at all. He had to recover his core defense, and fast.
"We go to the woods, you two brats," Agamenticus ordered, his voice low and cold. "The time for subtlety is over. I will tell you precisely how to access a mythical zone the entire world believes does not exist."
📝 System Interlude / Author's Note (Pre-Chapter 2)
Regarding Agamenticus Rialto's Vulnerability:
While Agamenticus possesses Infinite Health Points (HP), his core risk is not death by HP reduction, but System Deletion.
His Defense stat (DEF 10) is the only buffer protecting his Final Boss Core Process (or "Hard Drive") from unmitigated damage. Any attack that heavily bypasses this low Defense (especially Critical Hits from high-damage players like Susan) registers within the VRMMO as a System-Anomalous Defeat.
The System Logic is designed to immediately conclude: IF (Boss_Defeated By Non_Designated Player) THEN EXECUTE DELETION PROTOCOL.
The Defense Core Shards act as System Patches, raising his DEF to prevent the trigger and rewriting the deletion protocol itself. His paranoia is justified: he is fighting for his continued existence within the game's code.