The elevator ride to the 26th floor of Cocoa House was agonizingly slow.
To make matters worse, the speakers were still working.
š¶ "Girl, you are my pumpkin... my sweet potato..." š¶
"Really?" Elara asked, wiping black zombie sludge off her [Silk Robe]. "We're going to fight the Lord of the Dead, and we have to listen to Afro-Pop from 2018?"
"It's a classic," Bhy Khay said, checking the durability of his dagger. "Besides, the General probably can't turn it off. He's a Necromancer, not an Electrician."
"I can draw a speaker with a mute button," Tomiwa offered, sketching on her forearm.
"Save the ink," Bhy Khay watched the floor numbers tick up. 24... 25... "We need every drop for the boss. Zayn, how many arrows?"
"Twelve," Zayn replied, looking at his quiver. "But if I account for wind resistance, the Coriolis effect, and my own shaking hands... I have about four effective shots."
"Optimist," Bhy Khay smirked.
DING.
The doors slid open.
They expected a dungeon. They expected skulls, candles, and maybe a throne made of spines.
What they got was... an office.
The entire 26th floor had been stripped of walls, creating a massive, open-plan penthouse. Floor-to-ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of the burning city of Ibadan. In the center sat a mahogany desk that cost more than Bhy Khay's entire tuition.
Behind the desk sat The General.
He wasn't wearing a robe. He was wearing his dress uniform, perfectly pressed, with a terrifying amount of medals. He was writing on a notepad with a fountain pen.
"You're late," the General said without looking up. "I had you scheduled for a 2:30 PM execution. It is now 2:45."
"Traffic was killer," Bhy Khay stepped out of the elevator. "Literal killer."
The General finally looked up. His face was gaunt, skin pulled tight over bone, and his eyes were voids of swirling green mist.
[BOSS: GENERAL HARUNA (The City Lord)]
[CLASS: BUREAUCRATIC NECROMANCER (Lvl 10)]
[ABILITY: DEATH TAX - Drains HP from enemies to heal self.]
"You killed Captain Idris," the General noted, closing his folder. "Good. He was incompetent. Always leaving bone fragments on the carpet."
He stood up. He was tallāunnaturally so.
"I assume you're here for the Token," the General gestured to a small, golden pyramid paperweight on his desk. "The Key to the City."
"We prefer 'new management'," Elara said, raising her staff.
"Management?" The General laughed. It sounded like dry leaves crunching. "Child, look out the window."
He pointed a skeletal finger at the city below.
"Before the System, this city was chaos. Crime. Corruption. Noise. Now? Look at the streets. My soldiers don't steal. They don't take bribes. They don't blast music at 3 AM. I have brought Order."
"You brought Death," Zayn argued, raising his bow.
"Tomato, tomato," the General waved his hand dismissively. "The unemployment rate is zero percent. Everyone works for me."
"It's a pyramid scheme, General," Bhy Khay interrupted, walking casually toward the desk. "You're the CEO, and your employees are rotting. That's not a sustainable business model. The turnover rate is going to be... messy."
The General's eyes narrowed.
"I see. You're a comedian. The System loves comedians."
He slammed his hand on the desk.
"[BOARD MEETING: ADJOURNED]."
The floor around the desk exploded.
Bhy Khay didn't flinch. "Zayn, scatter!"
From the debris, four monstrosities rose. They weren't soldiers. They were... abominations. Several bodies fused together with dark magic, extra limbs protruding from their backs.
[ENEMY: CORPSE AMALGAMATION (Lvl 6)]
[TYPE: TANK / DPS]
"Tomiwa!" Bhy Khay shouted. "Draw something heavy!"
"I'm an artist, not a warehouse!" Tomiwa screamed, sketching furiously. "Here! [ACME ANVIL]!"
A cartoon anvil materialized in the air and dropped on the head of the first Amalgamation.
CLANG.
The monster staggered, seeing stars. LiterallyāTomiwa drew spinning stars around its head.
"It worked!" Tomiwa cheered. "Cartoon physics override Necromancy!"
"Don't get cocky!" Elara shouted, blasting a [Ice Shard] at the second monster. "Bhy Khay, the General is casting!"
The General was floating behind his desk, channeling a massive green spell.
"[LIFE DRAIN]," he whispered.
Green tendrils shot out from his chest, latching onto Elara and Zayn.
[-50 HP/sec]
[-50 HP/sec]
"My health!" Zayn panicked. "It's dropping faster than my GPA!"
"He's using a vampiric tether!" Bhy Khay analyzed. "If we hit him, he heals. If we don't hit him, we die. It's a soft-lock mechanic."
"So how do we kill him?" Elara gasped, her skin turning pale.
"We don't kill him," Bhy Khay sprinted toward the windows. "We fire him."
He looked at the antenna tower on the roof just outside the window.
[OBJECT: IBADAN BROADCAST NODE]
[STATUS: CORRUPTED BY NECROMANCY]
"The General isn't casting from his own mana," Bhy Khay realized. "He's Wi-Fi tethering to the city's grid to boost his signal!"
Bhy Khay grabbed a heavy office chair.
"General!" Bhy Khay shouted.
The General looked over, still draining the life from the others. "What? Are you going to throw furniture at me?"
"No," Bhy Khay grinned. "I'm going to cancel your subscription."
He threw the chairānot at the General, but at the Window.
CRASH.
The glass shattered. The wind howled into the office, carrying the smoke of the burning city.
Bhy Khay didn't stop. He sprinted and jumped out of the window, 26 stories up.
"Bhy Khay!" Elara screamed.
Bhy Khay fell.
Gravity grabbed him. The ground was a long way down.
But Bhy Khay wasn't aiming for the ground. He twisted in mid-air, aiming for the massive metal lattice of the broadcast antenna attached to the side of the building.
He extended his hand.
[SKILL: SHADOW STEP]
ZOOP.
He teleported five meters forward, grabbing a rusty metal rung of the antenna.
CLANG.
His shoulder screamed in pain as he slammed into the metal, dangling 200 feet above the street.
"Okay," Bhy Khay gritted his teeth, pulling himself up. "Server room, take two."
He climbed to the junction box where the General's green magic cables were plugged in.
[OBJECT: NECROMANTIC AMPLIFIER]
[SOURCE: THE GENERAL]
[ACTION: DISCONNECT?]
"You have unauthorized devices on the network," Bhy Khay muttered, pulling his [Broodmother's Fang].
He didn't just cut the cable. He jammed the poisoned dagger into the circuit board.
ZZZRT.
[CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE.]
[SIGNAL LOST.]
Inside the penthouse, the General suddenly gasped. The green tendrils draining Elara and Zayn snapped.
"My connection!" The General fell to the floor, his levitation failing. "Who turned off the router?!"
"Now!" Zayn shouted, dropping to one knee. "He's offline! No lag!"
He drew three arrows at once.
"[TRIPLE SHOT]!"
THWACK. THWACK. THWACK.
All three arrows hit the General in the chest.
The General stumbled back, crashing into his mahogany desk.
"This... is... a violation... of... protocol..." The General wheezed, black blood leaking onto his medals.
Bhy Khay climbed back through the broken window, dusting off his hands.
"Actually," Bhy Khay walked over to the dying boss. "It's a hostile takeover."
He picked up the golden pyramid paperweight from the desk.
[ITEM: CITY LORD TOKEN (Tier 1)]
[REGION: IBADAN CENTRAL]
[EFFECT: GRANTS CONTROL OF SAFE ZONES, TAXES, AND GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.]
The General reached out a skeletal hand. "You... you can't run a city... you're just... children..."
"We're not children," Bhy Khay looked at the Token. "We're the IT Department. And you just got rebooted."
[BOSS DEFEATED: GENERAL HARUNA]
[XP GAINED: +5000]
[LEVEL UP! (6 -> 8)]
The General dissolved into ash. The four Corpse Amalgamations fell apart instantly, turning into piles of harmless meat.
The office was quiet, save for the wind howling through the broken window.
Elara sat on the floor, drinking a mana potion. "Did you really just jump out of a skyscraper to unplug him?"
"It was the most efficient path," Bhy Khay shrugged.
"You have issues," Tomiwa noted, sketching a bandage on Elara's arm. "Serious issues."
"I have a city," Bhy Khay corrected.
He held up the Token.
[SYSTEM PROMPT: CLAIM THE CITY?]
[Y/N]
Bhy Khay pressed Y.
A massive blue pulse shockwaved from Cocoa House, sweeping across the entire city of Ibadan. Every player, every monster, and every survivor saw the notification in the sky.
[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT]
[NEW CITY LORD APPOINTED: BHY KHAY]
[GUILD: ECLIPSE]
[TAX RATE: 10% ON ALL TRANSACTIONS]
[RULE #1: NO PK (PLAYER KILLING) IN SAFE ZONES.]
"Ten percent?" Zayn asked, looking at the notification. "Isn't that a bit high?"
"Infrastructure isn't free, Zayn," Bhy Khay walked to the window, looking down at his new domain. "We have to rebuild the internet. I need to catch up on my anime."
Elara laughed. It was the first real laugh since the apocalypse started.
"So," she stood up, standing beside him. "What now, City Lord?"
Bhy Khay looked at the horizon. The sun was rising. But in the distance, toward the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, a dark red cloud was gathering.
"Now?" Bhy Khay's eyes glowed gold. "Now we prepare for the server merge."
[QUEST COMPLETED: THE CITY LORD.]
[NEXT ARC UNLOCKED: THE INTER-CITY WAR.]