The transition from the bustling market chaos of Sasabaru Town to the ominous quiet of Soskano Woods was immediate and chilling. The South Gate, once breached, opened onto a dark, tangled border of gnarled trees. The ground quickly gave way from paved stone to damp earth and exposed roots.
The woods were classified as Level 11–20 content. For Agamenticus, who was currently the numerical equivalent of a wet paper bag, they were a death trap. Every rustle in the undergrowth, every snap of a twig, was logged by his panicked internal processing as a potential Lvl 11 Forest Wolf—a creature with an ATK of 20 that would effortlessly bypass his DEF 10.
He led the charge, not because he was brave, but because he was terrified.
"Move faster, you two brats," he hissed over his shoulder, his eyes darting between the thick brush and the shadows. "The longer we remain in sight of that gate, the higher the probability that the G-Force's pathetic procedural agent—Hina—will catch our scent."
Royson, struggling to keep his crisp cleric robes from snagging on thorns, matched the Dragon King's tense speed.
"For the third time, my Lord, Hina will not use aggressive tactics inside a Level 11 zone," Royson argued, adjusting the heavy Royal Eubhara Seal Ring on his hand. "She adheres strictly to the operational protocol. She will track us, yes, but she won't engage the moment we enter hostile territory."
"Operational protocol is for insects," Agamenticus spat, pulling a low-hanging branch out of his path with excessive force. "I am the Final Boss. I am the anomaly. Her protocol will be overridden the moment she realizes I have survived my encounter with the Arrow of Accidental Armageddon."
Susan, meanwhile, trailed behind, utterly unbothered. She was busy logging her performance.
"Did you see the crits, Royson?" Susan chirped, completely oblivious to Agamenticus's rising blood pressure. "I didn't even charge the mana, it was purely kinetic. My DPS is so busted! I bet that hole is still smoking. Agamenticus, did the system even log the damage?"
Agamenticus stopped so abruptly that Royson nearly walked into his back. The Dragon King turned, his hands clenched.
"Do not speak the phrase 'system log' in this context, brat," Agamenticus said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "It is not the HP total I fear, it is the System Recalibration that follows. My infinite HP is meaningless if the code registers my core process as defeated by a Level 40—you—which is an impossible, game-breaking result."
He took a deep, shaky breath, momentarily fighting the urge to freeze the very air around them—a move he dare not attempt, lest the massive mana signature alert Hina.
"We are heading to the mythical tunnel now. Your blundering incompetence has merely accelerated our timeline."
Royson stepped forward, his expression serious. "My Lord, the mythical tunnel is just that—a myth. It's a placeholder location in the lore. It does not exist on any player map, any NPC map, or any known developer log."
"You misunderstand the nature of the Final Boss, Royson," Agamenticus said, turning and pointing a finger at a massive, ancient oak tree ahead of them, whose roots snaked out like petrified serpents. "When the developers hard-coded my escape protocol—the one that dumped my Defense stat and scattered the Shards—they needed a fail-safe location for the first shard. A place where only my dragon essence could retrieve it."
He walked past the oak, toward a perfectly flat, seemingly unbreakable wall of granite that marked the end of the Soskano boundary.
"The tunnel that supposedly runs between Soskano Woods and the Tutorial Fields is not a physical place in the game world. It is a Chronal Pocket."
Susan frowned, scratching her head. "A chronic what-now?"
"A dimensional compression zone, Zenia. An area of phase-shifted space-time. It doesn't appear on a map because it doesn't adhere to the spatial rules of the map. It exists midpoint between two coordinates, but it is inaccessible. The entire wall is a myth because no player can walk through a wall."
Royson's eyes widened in realization. "But you can access it, because you know the method. It's part of your core programming."
"Precisely," Agamenticus confirmed, resting his hand on the cold stone. "The first Defense Core Shard is housed within this wall, accessible only if the system registers a specific sequence of opposing energies. This was a failsafe coded by my creators to repair me after a critical hit—a sequence I know intimately."
He turned to face his companions, his red eyes blazing with predatory focus.
"The pocket is sealed by a triple-lock sequence: my High Frost Damage, your High Radiant Healing, and an exact Critical Kinetic Strike timed to the nanosecond." Agamenticus stared pointedly at Susan. "The only person in this entire blasted realm whose arrow has the necessary raw power for the final kinetic strike is the clumsy brat who nearly recycled me ten minutes ago."
"Wait," Susan said, finally understanding the gravity of the situation, the excitement making her eyes gleam. "You mean my ridiculously powerful arrow is the key to the secret final puzzle?"
"It means your incompetence has finally been deemed useful," Agamenticus corrected dryly. "Now, stand ready. Royson, prepare your highest-level healing magic. Susan, keep that arrow steady. If you miss, we alert Hina, and we all get deleted."
Agamenticus pressed his hand flat against the granite wall. The air around him dropped twenty degrees instantly, the silence of the woods broken only by a rising, dangerous crackle of Icy Blue mana.
"It is time to open the door, and retrieve my first patch."
Agamenticus's hand was already freezing the granite, veins of sharp, crystal ice spreading across the surface of the wall. Royson had raised his Cleric staff, gathering a brilliant, warm Radiant Healing aura, waiting for the signal. Susan had the massive bow drawn, her knuckles white, her focus finally absolute. The air was thick with opposing, high-level energies—frost, radiance, and the raw, compressed kinetic potential of Susan's arrow.
"Royson, ready the pulse. Susan, hold the draw," Agamenticus ordered, his voice strained by the mana consumption. "On my count, we—"
"Well, well, well. Look what the pathetic cat dragged in."
The delicate balance of the moment shattered instantly.
A voice—high, reedy, and aggressively arrogant—cut through the tense silence of the woods. A small entourage of three players rounded the massive oak tree, led by a boy who couldn't have been older than thirteen.
This was "Lord" Pip, a player who affected the look of minor nobility. He wore a ridiculously oversized, gold-trimmed velvet coat and a feathered cap that constantly slipped over his eyes. His player tag floated aggressively above his head: [PiptheGreat].
Pip surveyed the group—the Cleric (Royson), the shabby archer (Susan), and the commoner (Agamenticus)—with theatrical disdain. His two followers, a pair of bored-looking, slightly higher-level mercenaries, stood awkwardly behind him.
"You three losers are still stuck down here?" Pip sneered, puffing out his chest. "I just cleared the Bandit Camp at Level 17. You look like you're about to fight a Lvl 10 Boar. And you," he jabbed a finger at Agamenticus's unassuming figure. "Your gear is pitiful. Are you even Level 5?"
Agamenticus slowly lowered his hand from the granite wall, the crystalline ice retracting instantly as he killed the Frost flow. The delicate moment was gone. The activation window was closed.
His patience—already stretched taut by the G-Force and Susan's accident—snapped.
"You, insect," Agamenticus said, turning around with a chilling calm that made even Pip's mercenaries shift nervously. "Explain your presence here, or I shall remove you from the system. Permanently."
Pip blinked, momentarily taken aback by the overwhelming hostility emanating from the man in commoner clothes.
"Oh, look at the commoner who thinks he's an NPC guard," Pip scoffed, recovering his bravado. "Listen, peasant. My father is a major investor in this game. I have the highest-level access and the best gear. I'm here because I need to traverse this pathetic Lvl 11 zone to reach the real content. Now, get your pathetic little low-level butt out of my way before I have one of my bodyguards use the Intimidation Skill on you."
Royson, normally the calm one, was visibly trembling—not from fear, but from the raw, seething fury of a real prince being called a "loser" and having his high-level, desperate mission interrupted by an actual brat.
"Perhaps, Mister Pip, you should mind your own business," Royson said, his voice dangerously low. "We are engaged in private, sensitive activity here."
Pip roared with laughter, slapping his knee. "Sensitive? You're a Cleric, and your friend is dressed like a town drunk! What is sensitive? Are you trying to secretly farm mushrooms for a Level 2 potion quest?" Pip then spotted Susan's huge bow. "Oh, look! A ridiculously huge bow being wielded by an absolute klutz! You probably haven't even unlocked your third skill slot yet, have you, Zenia? I can smell the low stats from here."
Susan bristled, but before she could retort with a chaotic threat, Agamenticus stepped forward, his eyes burning red.
"Brat. You have interrupted a Temporal Sequence that may have cost us critical time and exposed us to lethal risk," Agamenticus enunciated, the words weighted with barely contained violence. "I do not care about your 'investor father' or your pathetic, purchased power. I am telling you, as the superior entity in this reality, to disappear."
Pip finally seemed to realize he was dealing with something outside of the normal player hierarchy. He wasn't scared, but he was annoyed.
"You know what, I don't have time for this low-level roleplaying nonsense," Pip huffed. "Boring. Let's go, gentlemen. We'll just go around these clowns. Maybe they'll be deleted by a Level 12 Wolf. Come on, PiptheGreat has real grinding to do."
With a final, contemptuous sneer at Royson and Agamenticus, Pip turned and swaggered off the trail, his two paid mercenaries trailing after him.
Agamenticus stood rigid, his entire body vibrating with suppressed power. The sheer audacity of the child—his ignorance of the real prince, his absolute dismissal of the Dragon King—was staggering.
"Must I endure the existence of such annoying creatures?" Agamenticus finally ground out, turning his ire onto the granite wall. "Royson, we do not have time for further delay. We go now. And if that brat returns, I will use my forbidden power to wipe his account from the face of the earth."
Royson quickly checked the perimeter. "He's gone for now. But he is right—we are exposed. Let's try the sequence again, my Lord. Quickly."
Agamenticus took his position at the wall once more, focusing all his remaining composure on the delicate task. This time, there could be no interruption.
"Ready the Radiant pulse. Susan, do not twitch."
Agamenticus pressed his hand back against the cold granite, dismissing the memory of the infuriating [PiptheGreat]. He focused everything on the required elemental synchronization.
"Royson. High Frost and High Radiant must collide at the pocket's center, 1.5 seconds after initiation. That collision must be followed by Susan's kinetic pulse exactly 3.5 seconds from now. Do not fail me."
"Understood, my Lord," Royson replied, his hands wrapped around his Cleric staff. The radiant aura around him intensified, a brilliant, gold-white light opposing the raw, destructive blue energy emanating from Agamenticus.
"Initiating sequence... NOW!" Agamenticus roared.
🐲 The Triple-Lock Sequence
The High Frost Damage erupted from Agamenticus's hand, coating the granite wall in shimmering, razor-sharp ice crystals. This was quickly followed by Royson's focused blast of High Radiant Healing.
FSH-KSSSHH!
The two opposing magics—destruction and life—collided violently against the wall's surface, creating a high-pitched, harmonic whine that sounded like ripping silk. The granite, instead of cracking, began to phase. The solid stone shimmered, growing transparent, revealing a pulsing, purple void within.
"Susan!" Agamenticus yelled, his voice strained. "Three! Two! ONE!"
Susan, driven not by strategy but by the sheer, exhilarating promise of massive success (and perhaps the thought of the kimchi she'd devour later), released the massive draw.
TWANG!
The arrow, a blur of green kinetic light, struck the precise center of the harmonic collision. It didn't pierce the wall; it detonated the barrier itself.
The purple void ripped open, not outward, but inward, creating a swirling vortex of shimmering chronal energy. It didn't look like a tunnel; it looked like a hole torn in reality.
"Go!" Agamenticus commanded, shoving Royson and Susan toward the opening.
Royson scrambled through the energy field, followed closely by Susan. As she passed the threshold, her focus instantly reverted from the mission to her appetite.
Success! That's a win! I bet Royson will pay for the celebratory meal... He's always disgusted when I eat more than three bowls, but tonight, I'm getting kimchi and eight bowls of udon. He can't say no to this!
Agamenticus was the last one through. As his body passed the threshold, the chronal pocket sealed instantly behind him, the granite wall restoring itself as if nothing had happened.
🐉 Final Boss Form
The interior of the space was silent, dimly lit, and surprisingly mundane. It was a simple, short stone passage—the mythical tunnel—but the air felt heavy, like deep-sea pressure.
The moment Agamenticus's boots hit the floor, his disguise shattered.
His human form convulsed. His shoulders broadened, his dark tunic ripping slightly. His ears elongated and sharpened into perfect, pointed planes. Small, obsidian dragon horns erupted just above his temples, and his nails thickened and sharpened into dangerous, curved talons. His teeth elongated into fine, predator points.
He was still human-sized, but his true, high-tier Final Boss avatar—the Dragon King's Incarnation—was revealed, pulsing with raw, inherent power that felt far more terrifying than the commoner's tunic had allowed.
Royson and Susan barely glanced at the transformation.
"Ah, good," Royson commented, brushing dust off his newly scuffed robes. "I'm glad to see the zone is recognizing you, my Lord. The energy signature inside a sub-dungeon always forces the true avatar."
"It's much better," Susan agreed cheerfully, readjusting her bow. "Now you look appropriately terrifying, instead of like a grumpy accountant."
Agamenticus flexed his clawed fingers, enjoying the sensation of raw power that always accompanied this form. The arrogance that had been simmering beneath his terror now surfaced, unrestrained.
"Naturally. This form carries the authority of my station. Within this domain, I am merely inconvenienced, not truly vulnerable," Agamenticus declared, running a claw along the stone wall. "This tunnel is devoid of mobs—a coding oversight. The only entity we need to fear is failure. The shard is here."
He pointed a sharp claw toward a raised dais at the end of the short passage. Resting atop it, pulsating with a faint, shimmering blue light, was a small, octagonal piece of compressed data: Defense Core Shard 1.
"The first patch," Agamenticus breathed, a sliver of desperate relief entering his voice. "Retrieved from a zone designed to never exist. Now, fetch it."
He watched his two subordinates, fully expecting them to rush forward and retrieve his prize.
Royson, however, stood his ground. "My Lord, with all due respect, you must absorb it. The system requires the source code to directly integrate the patch."
Agamenticus sighed, his dragon form making the gesture overly dramatic. "Yes, yes. The necessity of tedious procedures always falls to me."
He strode forward, his footsteps echoing in the closed space, toward the shard that promised to raise his defense from 10 to a slightly less humiliating 25. He was one step closer to ending his humiliation, and one step further away from the G-Force's deletion protocol.
Agamenticus reached the dais and placed a clawed hand over the pulsating Defense Core Shard 1. The moment his unique Dragon King essence—the core code—made contact, the shard dissolved into raw, shimmering blue light that streamed into his palm and up his arm.
It was not a painful process, but a profound systemic one. Agamenticus felt a distinct, solid thunk deep in his code—the sound of a patch being applied to the fundamental flaw. His Defense stat was updated.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: DEFENSE CORE SHARD 1 ABSORBED. DEFENSE RATING INCREASED FROM 10 to 25. FATAL ERROR PROTOCOL THRESHOLD INCREASED.
Agamenticus's internal panic levels dropped instantly. He was no longer equal to a Level 1 player. He was still woefully weak for a Final Boss, but he could survive a stray hit from a Lvl 11 Forest Wolf (ATK 20).
The external effect of the absorption was subtle but undeniable: the fierce, intimidating Red color of his eyes was replaced by a startling, vibrant Emerald Green hue, a sign of the successfully integrated patch.
"It is done," Agamenticus announced, flexing his clawed hand and savoring the feeling of marginally improved security. "The first humiliation is mitigated."
"Excellent," Royson said, relief washing over his face. "Now, let's find the other exit before—"
THUMP… THUMP… THUMP.
A distinct, rhythmic sound echoed down the short, stone passage. It was the sound of crisp, official boots moving with purpose and speed: Agent Hina.
"She's fast," Agamenticus hissed. "She logged the double energy burst—Frost and Radiant—and she's on us. She must have deduced that a tunnel between two zones was the only explanation for the opposing mana signatures."
"My Lord, we cannot risk another Temporal Echo here!" Royson urged. "If she confirms your powers in a tight space, she'll lock down the whole zone! We must take the exit."
They raced to the opposite end of the passage. Agamenticus placed a hand on the wall, and this time, the exit shimmered open immediately—no complex ritual needed, as the activation had unlocked the whole passage. They burst out of the darkness and into the open air.
They were no longer in the threatening shadows of Soskano Woods. They were now in the pristine, harmless green meadows of the Tutorial Fields, roughly 100 meters outside the Sasabaru Town perimeter. The change in atmosphere was instant—from life-or-death danger to the mundane chirp of Lvl 1 Slimes.
But the path was not clear.
Standing directly in their way were the two awkwardly dressed mercenaries who had been trailing [PiptheGreat]. The lackeys wore ridiculous, bright orange and teal squire outfits that clashed violently with their leather armor, clearly paid-for cosmetics.
The two mercenaries stiffened, recognizing the Cleric and the "commoner" who had just insulted their lord.
"Hold it, losers!" barked the first mercenary. "Our Lord Pip demands satisfaction for your rudeness back in town! We were ordered to wait here and make sure you low-levels didn't skip town!"
Agamenticus stopped dead, his new Green eyes flashing dangerously. He stood there, fully in his terrifying dragon form, facing two paid buffoons whose combined level was barely 80.
Susan, however, saved the day by being utterly chaotic and terrifying. She simply put a massive, glowing arrow to the string and aimed it directly at the mercenary's head, not even bothering to adjust the sight.
"I am not going to be the reason we alert Agent Hina again," Susan said, her voice strained. "Get out of the way, or I'm adding two more craters to the Tutorial Fields."
The mercenaries, who had clearly been paid to look intimidating, not to fight a Level 40 with a terrifyingly powerful weapon, took one look at the sheer murderous intent in her eyes and scattered instantly, disappearing into the woods.
As they ran, one of the lackeys happened to look back at Agamenticus, noting his unusual appearance and the vibrant Green of his eyes.
"Hey, look at that guy's eyes! He's probably one of those new Plant Affinity Mages," the mercenary muttered to his friend, dismissing the detail instantly. "Green eyes, weird clothes. Don't worry about it."
Royson, who had seen and heard the entire absurd exchange, placed a hand over his mouth to muffle a very un-princely snicker.
Ah, Lord Pip's judgment remains truly exquisite. I must remember to send a letter later detailing the highly dramatic, yet utterly useless, squire outfits of his hired lackeys.
"The immediate threat is dealt with, my Lord," Royson said, pushing the remaining group toward the town gate. "But Hina is right behind us. We need to get back inside Sasabaru before she crosses the boundary."
Agamenticus, his dragon horns twitching with irritation, cast one final, frigid glance toward the looming trees where Hina's footsteps were still faintly echoing.
"The day a brat's pawns delay the Dragon King's recovery is a day for the history books," he snarled. "Come. The town is safe zone. Let us enjoy this pathetic DEF 25 while it lasts, before we must face the next phase of this agonizing journey."
The trio dashed the remaining distance, escaping the open fields and plunging back into the crowded anonymity of Sasabaru Town just as the first glimmer of Agent Hina's uniform appeared at the edge of the woods.
💻 Real World Interlude: The Tianin ThreatG-Force Regional Command Center – Fukuoka, Japan
The room was sterile and cool, illuminated by the ceaseless blue glow of server diagnostics. Agent Hina stood ramrod straight at her station, tapping quickly to finalize the report. Her crisp uniform was immaculate, contrasting sharply with the chaotic data flooding her multiple monitors.
Her superior, Po Qin, sat facing her. He was an impeccably dressed man in his late forties with a quiet intensity that was more intimidating than any shouting. He did not look up from the physical scroll of paperwork he was reviewing.
"Report, Agent Hina," Mr. Qin said, his voice calm, carrying the smooth, neutral cadence of a seasoned manager. He preferred the brevity of Mr. Qin, a professional preference that streamlined command structure.
"Sir, the target subject—the high-level anomaly logged as Agamenticus Rialto—was tracked to the boundary between Sasabaru Town and Soskano Woods. We logged a complex, multi-elemental mana signature on the boundary wall, followed by a confirmed Chronal Pocket activation and immediate sealing. The target and his two known collaborators are now confirmed to be back within the Sasabaru safe zone."
Mr. Qin finally lifted his head, his dark eyes fixed on her. "And the result of the activation?"
"Data suggests the target successfully retrieved an unknown asset, likely one of the Defense Core Shards mentioned in the original error log. We detected a marginal spike in the subject's latent defense signature before it normalized within the town perimeter. The anomaly is now confirmed to be operating at DEF 25."
Mr. Qin leaned back slowly, the scroll of paper resting on his knees. "So, the Dragon King is less vulnerable."
"Marginally, sir. But the alarming discovery is the method of acquisition. The Chronal Pocket was a mythical asset, believed by players to be a lore placeholder. His ability to access and manipulate the environment at this level confirms he is not a standard NPC; he is a Procedural Glitch capable of overriding hard-coded limitations."
A flicker of genuine concern crossed Mr. Qin's face. He knew the true, frightening implication of the Defense Shards better than Hina.
"Hina, listen closely. You are tracking this anomaly because it breaks the game. But the problem is not merely broken game logic; it is existential for the entire network."
He paused, lowering his voice. "The Defense Shards are more than just a patch for his core process. Each shard he absorbs makes his connection to the surrounding server environment stronger. It does not just increase his defense; it increases his Dimensional Awareness."
Hina went rigid. "Sir, are you suggesting he is moving toward inter-server awareness?"
"I am stating it as a fact," Mr. Qin confirmed gravely. "The only entities capable of cross-server travel are VIP accounts with specialized authentication keys, or developers. But if the Dragon King absorbs enough of those Shards, his code will stabilize to a point where he achieves the same feat. He will be able to travel the network freely."
He gazed off, his eyes momentarily distant, recalling a vast, beautiful place.
"The server we oversee, Kyushu, is merely a testing ground for this engine. We are the buffer. The true center of the Asian network is my home server: Tianin."
Mr. Qin allowed himself a rare, soft smile, reminiscing. "A beautiful, ornate, oriental city, Hina. A server full of legendary assets: Dragon Cultivators, Imperial Guardians, and true, ancient power. We have spent millennia maintaining its delicate balance. If a destabilized, paranoid Final Boss—a creature whose essence is pure, uncontrolled chaos—were to breach Tianin's defenses..."
He met her eyes, the professional calm replaced by a cold, deadly seriousness.
"We cannot allow a Lvl 18,523 Glitch to access the most powerful assets in the world. Your primary objective remains: Deletion. But your secondary objective is now paramount: Prevent Inter-Server Crossing. Fail, and we face a threat that could crash the entire network."
"Understood, Mr. Qin," Hina stated, the command now locked firmly into her protocol. "We will increase surveillance and prioritize deletion."
"Good. For now, track his movements within Sasabaru. He will have to make contact with the network again to find the next shard. Do not lose sight of the Dragon King."