SSS Rank: Infinite Enhancement, I Can Upgrade Everything to God Tier! Chapter 112: [112] : Cybernetic Overclock, The Backup Code

The cyberpunk lobby of the Neon Syndicate headquarters was completely wrecked.

Shattered glass covered the polished floor. The neon pink and green lights on the walls flickered and sparked, damaged by the sheer physical pressure Declan had brought into the room.

The fifty elite guards that Kato had sent down to deal with him were entirely gone. They had been reduced to a thick layer of dissolving blue pixels and a pile of dropped energy rifles.

Only Ryker was left.

The Level 65 Cyber-Ninja stood with his back pressed hard against the heavy steel elevator doors. His sleek silver tactical suit was covered in dust. He gripped his twin electric katanas so tightly that his knuckles cracked loudly in the quiet room.

He was the chief executioner of Sector 9. He was used to people begging him for rcy. He was not used to watching his entire heavily ard squad get turned into a digital smoothie in under six seconds.

Ryker stared at Declan. He stared at the hundred pitch-black shadow clones surrounding him, their purple eyes glowing like violent stars in the dim light.

"You broke the coordinate plane," Ryker whispered. His synthetically altered voice was shaking wildly. "That is not a skill. That is a developer tool. You are a walking glitch!"

Declan just stood there with his hands in the pockets of his dark Predator’s Coat. He looked completely bored.

Ryker knew he was dead. He could not fight a guy who ignored physical hit boxes and commanded an immortal army of dark matter demons.

He could not run either. The shadow clones completely blocked the only exit.

If he was going to get deleted, he was going to take the anomaly with him.

"I am not going out like a trash mob!" Ryker scread.

He slamd his hands together, crossing the blades of his electric katanas. He closed his eyes and pushed every single ounce of his mana directly into the cybernetic core located in his chest.

A glaring red system warning popped up in Declan’s vision.

[Warning: Extre Hostile Energy Surge Detected.]

[Target is initiating Cybernetic Overclock.]

[Status: Suicide Strike. Target will detonate their core to inflict 50,000 points of true kinetic damage in a ten-ter radius.]

Declan raised an eyebrow. "A suicide bomber. You guys really lack creativity."

Ryker’s silver armor started to glow with a blinding, white-hot heat. Steam hissed from the joints of his suit. The blue electricity on his swords turned a violent, unstable red.

"Die!" Ryker roared.

He lunged forward. The overclocked cybernetic core pushed his agility to the absolute limit.

He moved faster than a bullet, crossing the distance between the elevator and Declan in a fraction of a millisecond. He brought both glowing red katanas down, aiming right for Declan’s neck.

He wanted to lock Declan in place and trigger the massive explosion.

Declan did not use his Void Blink to teleport away. He did not even bother summoning the 40 Eclipse Severance halberd. The heavy weapon was ant for deleting massive space stations and giant bosses. It was overkill for a guy in a silver suit.

Declan simply willed his secondary weapon out of his digital storage.

The 20 Carnage Cleaver materialized in his right hand. The jagged, blood-red machete pulsed with a dark and hungry light.

Declan stepped casually to the side, letting Ryker’s desperate downward strike miss his shoulder by a single inch.

As the Cyber-Ninja flew past him, Declan flicked his wrist. He did not swing hard. He just dragged the serrated edge of the cleaver lightly across the side of Ryker’s silver armor.

Schwing!

The blade barely scratched the tal. It did not deal any raw physical damage. But it did not need to.

[Trait Activated: Hemorrhage.]

[100% chance to cause uncontrollable bleeding. Drains 50 HP per second.]

Ryker stumbled and caught his balance. He turned around, his chest glowing brighter and brighter. He was half a second away from exploding and taking the entire lobby with him.

Declan just looked at him, raised his left hand, and snapped his fingers.

SNAP.

[Trait Activated: Blood Burst.]

[Detonating active bleed stacks as internal AoE damage.]

The result was instantaneous and absolutely disgusting.

Ryker’s cybernetic core never got the chance to detonate. The system calculated the remaining bleed damage and applied it directly to the inside of his avatar.

"Wait, what..." Ryker choked out.

BOOM!

The Cyber-Ninja violently exploded from the inside out!

It was not a fiery explosion. It was a massive shockwave of dark digital blood and shredded at. His sleek silver armor shattered outward like shrapnel. A geyser of red gore painted the pristine white ceiling of the lobby.

Ryker’s health bar instantly dropped from full to zero.

His ruined body collapsed onto the polished floor with a heavy, wet thud.

[Player Ryker Defeated.]

Declan let out a breath and brushed a stray piece of digital ash off the sleeve of his coat.

"ssy," he muttered.

He waited for the body to dissolve. In the Grid, dead players turned into blue pixels and dropped their active inventory items. Declan wanted to see what kind of high-tier gear a Level 65 executive carried.

But the body did not dissolve.

Instead, the pool of dark blood on the floor suddenly stopped spreading. The shattered pieces of silver armor froze in mid-air.

Declan frowned. "That is new."

The blue pixels that had started to form around the corpse suddenly reversed direction. They rushed back into the ruined flesh.

The massive hole in Ryker’s chest violently stitched itself back together. The silver armor plates snapped back into place.

A blinding golden flash of light illuminated the lobby.

When the light faded, Ryker was lying on the floor. He was completely whole. His health bar was sitting perfectly at maximum. He was not missing a single stat point, and he had not lost a level.

He was just panting heavily, his eyes wide with sheer terror.

A golden system prompt floated over his head.

[Item Consud: Ergency Backup Code.]

[Player Ryker has been revived. All death penalties nullified.]

Declan stared at the prompt. He opened his global market interface and quickly searched the item na. The results popped up instantly.

[Ergency Backup Code]

↳ Tier: Mythic Consumable

↳ Source: Apex Paradigm Cash Shop (Exclusive)

↳ Price: 5,000,000 Real-World Credits.

Declan let out a low, dark laugh.

Five million real-world dollars! That was what this item cost.

It was not sothing you fard from a boss. It was not sothing you crafted. It was a literal pay-to-win cheat code that rich corporate players bought to ensure they never lost their progress.

"A multi-million dollar respawn ticket," Declan said smoothly. He walked over to where Ryker was lying on the floor. "You guys really do just buy your way out of playing the ga."

Ryker scrambled backward. His synthetic arrogance was entirely gone. He pressed his back against the elevator doors, his hands shaking wildly.

He had just experienced a violent, internal death. He had felt his organs explode.

"Stay back!" Ryker scread. He frantically swiped at his system interface, trying to pull out a teleportation scroll or a weapon.

Declan did not give him the chance.

He stepped forward and drove his heavy spiked boot directly into the center of Ryker’s chest plate. He pinned the Cyber-Ninja to the floor.

The sheer physical weight of his Abyssal Sovereign stats made it feel like a truck had just parked on Ryker’s ribs.

Ryker gasped for air, his hands uselessly grabbing at Declan’s leg.

"I really hate pay-to-win chanics," Declan said coldly, looking down at the terrified executive. "It ruins the economy."

Declan pulled the 20 Carnage Cleaver back out. He rested the jagged, blood-red blade right against the side of Ryker’s neck. The tal humd, eager to apply another bleed stack.

"Let us see how many of those little codes you have in your wallet," Declan smiled a bloodthirsty smile. "Because I have a lot of free ti today. I can just stand here and chop your head off all afternoon."

Ryker squeezed his eyes shut. "Don’t! Please! It hurts!"

"Then hand it over," Declan demanded.

"I can’t!" Ryker sobbed. "It is a soul-bound item! It automatically triggers on fatal damage!"

"Open your inventory and transfer it to right now, or I snap my fingers and make you explode again." Declan’s voice dropped to a deep and terrifying bass. "Your choice. Three seconds."

Ryker did not wait for the countdown. He frantically navigated his glowing blue interface.

A small, golden data drive materialized in the air. It looked like a luxury USB stick made of pure light. It dropped onto the floor next to Declan’s boot.

[Transfer Complete: Ergency Backup Code x1]

Declan picked it up. He looked at the item. It was a one-ti use consumable. It was incredibly rare. It was the ultimate safety net for a gar.

"Thank you for your contribution," Declan said.

He did not bother killing Ryker again. The guy was completely broken, crying on the floor like a child. He was not worth the stamina it would take to swing the cleaver.

Declan stepped off the Cyber-Ninja. He held the golden data drive in his hand.

He had a much better use for this than just surviving a single death. He was going to break the item.

"System," Declan commanded in his mind, his dark eyes fixed on the glowing code. "Apply Boundless Enhancent. Let us see what happens when we upgrade a respawn."