Awakening a 10,000x Skill Proficiency Multiplier in the Apocalypse

Pull them out of the recycle bin and put them back on the grid.”

[Processing... Restoring 4,000+ localized servers.]

Sebastian’s hand was shaking violently. The connection was draining the very last reserves of his life force. He was slipping into the dark.

”Seattle,” Valerie sobbed, burying her face into the back of his neck. ”That’s enough. You did it. Let go.”

”One more thing,” Sebastian wheezed, a faint, tired smile touching his bloody lips.

He looked at the glowing interface.

”Target: Valerie. Target: Sebastian,” he whispered. ”Remove all malware. Repair biological and digital vessels. Make us permanent.”

He poured the very last ounce of his ten million units of Source Code, and every single drop of his 10,000x Nexus Glitch, directly into the final command.

[Initiating Final Compile...]

*FWOOSH!*

The broken golden console violently erupted with a blinding, warm, beautiful light. The light didn’t burn. It washed over Sebastian and Valerie like a wave of pure, comforting sunshine.

The excruciating pain in Sebastian’s chest instantly vanished. The fractured bones in his arm snapped perfectly back into place with a soft, painless pop. The deep, bleeding gash in his thigh knit itself together, leaving smooth, unblemished skin. The heavy, suffocating weight of the bruised-purple malware and the red error runes carved into his chest were completely, permanently washed away.

He wasn’t a glitch anymore. He was just a man.

Behind him, Valerie gasped as the soot, the blood, and the terrifying internal burns of her astral channeling were instantly erased. Her skin glowed with perfect, natural health.

The blinding light expanded outward, washing out of the throne room, flooding down the dark, brutalist corridors of the Motherboard, and exploding out into the multiverse. It carried the new rules of reality to every single corner of the cosmos.

The Ethereal Plane was gone. The Game was over.

Sebastian slowly let go of the wires. His hand dropped to the floor. The golden holographic screens in his vision quietly faded away, leaving his eyesight perfectly clear.

He didn’t have a UI anymore. He didn’t have a level.

He rolled over onto his back, resting his head on Valerie’s lap. He looked up at her. Her blue eyes were bright, clear, and filled with tears of absolute relief.

”You look terrible,” Sebastian whispered, offering a tired, genuine smile.

Valerie let out a wet, shuddering laugh, leaning down to press her forehead against his.

”You should see the other guy,” she whispered back.

The roaring machinery of the Motherboard slowly ground to a peaceful, quiet halt. The universe took a deep, steady breath, and for the first time in forever, it was completely silent.

**

The silence was the absolute loudest thing Sebastian had ever heard.

For the past year, his brain had been a constant, buzzing nightmare of system notifications, leveling up chimes, and the screeching roar of combat. Even in his quietest moments, there had always been that faint, electronic hum of the Ethereal Plane running its background processes.

Now? There was nothing. Just the slow, steady rhythm of his own breathing and the soft thump of his actual, human heart beating inside his chest.

Sebastian blinked, staring up at the dark stone ceiling of the Motherboard’s throne room. He waited for a green UI prompt to pop up and tell him his health was regenerating. He waited for a red warning box to yell at him about his stamina.

Nothing happened. His vision was perfectly, completely clear.

”Holy shit,” Sebastian whispered, his voice sounding entirely normal. There was no metallic distortion, no overlapping radio static. Just the raspy, tired voice of a twenty-something guy who had desperately needed a nap for about twelve months.

He slowly tilted his head down. Valerie was lying on the pristine white marble floor, her head resting comfortably on his lap. Her choppy brown hair was clean, completely free of the soot and digital blood that had coated it just minutes ago. The deep, jagged scar on her cheek was still there, but it didn’t glow with angry blue magic anymore. It just looked like a normal, healed scar.

She let out a soft groan, her eyelashes fluttering before her bright blue eyes snapped open.

Valerie gasped, immediately sitting up and throwing her hands over her chest. ”The Spire! Sebastian, the core is melting down!”

”Hey, hey, easy,” Sebastian murmured, gently grabbing her shoulders. ”Look around, Princess. The router is unplugged. The IT department has officially closed for the holidays.”

Valerie froze, her chest heaving. She looked down at her hands. The blazing, blinding gold light that had literally been cooking her from the inside out was completely gone. Her skin was pale, soft, and entirely human. She wasn’t wearing her charred mechanic’s overalls anymore; the final compile had restored her to a simple, clean set of gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt.

She looked up at Sebastian.

He didn’t have his featureless black mask. The terrifying, twenty-foot-tall avatar of bruised-purple malware and red error runes had vanished completely. He was just Sebastian. He had messy black hair, dark bags under his eyes, and he was wearing a perfectly normal, intact black leather jacket over a gray shirt.

”You have a face,” Valerie breathed, reaching out with a trembling hand to touch his cheek. Her fingertips were warm.

”Yeah, well, I figured the whole ’faceless void monster’ aesthetic was going to make getting a table at a restaurant really difficult,” Sebastian smirked, leaning into her touch.

*RUMBLE.*

The floor beneath them suddenly vibrated, but it didn’t feel like an attack. It felt like a massive, deep exhalation.

The towering brass pillars and grinding iron gears of the Hardware Level began to blur.

*FWOOSH.*

It wasn’t a violent deletion. The dark stone walls and the pristine white marble floor simply began to dissolve into millions of tiny, glowing particles of golden light. They drifted upward, floating away like dandelion seeds caught in a warm summer breeze.

”What’s happening?” Valerie asked, gripping his hand tightly.

”The server is shutting down,” Sebastian said, helping her stand up. His legs didn’t ache. His bones didn’t feel like dense, heavy titanium. He just felt light, healthy, and incredibly relieved. ”The simulation is over, Seattle. We’re going home.”

As the massive, brutalist architecture of the Motherboard faded into golden dust, the environment around them seamlessly shifted. The cold, sterile air was instantly replaced by a warm, fragrant breeze that smelled intensely of wet dirt, pine trees, and fresh rain.

Sebastian closed his eyes and took a massive, greedy breath. It was the best thing he had ever tasted.

When he opened his eyes, the Hardware Level was gone.

They were standing on the crest of a lush, grassy hill. The grass was bright green, swaying gently in the wind. Above them, the sky was a brilliant, breathtaking shade of blue, dotted with a few fluffy, harmless white clouds. The sun was shining brightly, warming Sebastian’s face.

There was no bruised-purple smog. There were no jagged, bleeding tears in the fabric of reality.

”Sebastian, look,” Valerie whispered, pointing down the hill.

Sitting in the valley below them was Sanctuary.

But it wasn’t the grim, heavily fortified Tier 2 Citadel with glowing magical turrets and walls made of enchanted obsidian. It looked like a sprawling, beautifully constructed settlement made of real stone, reclaimed steel, and solid timber. It looked like a town built by human hands, not rendered by a physics engine.

High above the town, the massive, impenetrable golden dome of the Sovereign’s Aegis was visible for just a fraction of a second.

*CRACK-SHATTER!*

With a sound like a billion wind chimes ringing at once, the golden firewall shattered. It didn’t fall to the earth; the golden shards simply dissolved into harmless, beautiful sunlight that rained down over the settlement.

”The barrier,” Valerie gasped.

”We don’t need a cage anymore,” Sebastian smiled, slipping his hands into his jacket pockets. He frowned for a second, patting his sides. ”Well, shit. My bottomless inventory is gone. I think my apartment keys were in there.”

”I think your apartment got crushed by a glacier six months ago, Seattle,” Valerie laughed, the sound bright and clear in the open air.

*CLANG! CLANG!*

The heavy iron gates of Sanctuary swung open.

Two figures sprinted out of the town, hauling ass up the grassy hill.

”Boss! Boss!”

It was Wraith. The usually silent, edgy assassin was sprinting so fast he tripped over a stray tree root, tumbling into the grass before scrambling back up. He wasn’t wearing his dark, brooding leather armor. He had on a pair of faded jeans and a black hoodie.

Right behind him, huffing and puffing with his hands on his knees, was Galleon. The dwarf looked exactly the same—short, incredibly wide, and sporting a massive, braided beard—but his heavy, runic plate armor was gone, replaced by a thick flannel shirt and suspenders.

”Wraith!” Valerie cheered, running down the hill to meet them.

Wraith didn’t stop to salute. The cold-blooded killer threw his arms around Valerie in a massive, deeply unprofessional hug. ”You’re alive! Holy fuck, Boss, you’re actually alive! We saw the golden dome shatter, and the whole sky turned blue, and the UI completely vanished!”