Arriving here, Seraphine scanned her surroundings before slowly reaching out to touch the inverted cross carved into the grotesque Wall of Corpses.
BUZZ!
At the instant of contact, fresh blood suddenly began to ooze from the rough carving.
Simultaneously, the demonic birds that had been swarming and pecking at her froze, dying instantly and dropping to the ground.
Then, deep within the murky black mist ahead, the world violently shuddered.
ROAR!
A prolonged howl drifted faintly from the depths of the fog sea.
Everything unfolding seemed utterly bizarre and inexplicable to any observer.
Why had Seraphine wandered the mist for so long, performing those strange actions, and why did the demonic birds suddenly die?
In truth, this was the result of Seraphine utilizing a speedrun strategy.
According to the Speedrun Strategy Guide, this black mist covering most of the instance hid countless slumbering monsters. These grotesque, dark creatures, dripping with anti-religious aesthetics, all harbored various key fragments made of metal, stone, or bone within their bodies.
Collecting enough shards allowed players to assemble various keys. Normally, one would have to hunt these monsters, grind for shards, and unlock a series of elite-filled rooms and tunnels just to reach the Wall of Corpses and summon the instance Boss.
Skipping even one step meant wandering aimlessly in the mist, never reaching the Wall, and ultimately being forced to exit the instance.
But Seraphine had zero interest in playing through such a mind-numbing, cliché-ridden game loop.
Collecting materials? Piecing together keys?
Collecting? To hell with that. Too much wasted time.
She just wanted to hunt the Boss and level up fast.
Nothing else mattered.
So, Seraphine chose to "skip class."
This "skip class" method was precisely why she had performed those seemingly bizarre actions earlier.
According to the guide, many instances in Brilliant Games were riddled with flaws and glitches, both large and small.
By exploiting these, players could pull off some truly wild maneuvers.
Like farming materials, duping items, or glitching Equipment. Some could fly, phase through "air walls," or even bypass the entire game sequence, "jumping" from the very first stage straight to the endgame.
This "Sequence Breaking" is commonly called skipping class, an extremely difficult feat reserved for the elite tier of speedrunners.
Interestingly, Nightmare Deep-Port had its own skip.
The glitch supporting this playstyle stemmed from the instance's sequence mechanics and its architectural design.
First, based on the sequence logic, the starter mob of Demonic Birds should never be allowed to encounter the Boss-triggering Wall of Corpses.
Why?
Simple.
In standard game logic, a player must clear Stage 1 to reach Stage 2, and so on, until finally facing the Boss at the end.
It's like how a Dark Souls 3 player can't just bypass Iudex Gundyr to go straight for a high-stakes duel with the Nameless King.
Therefore, once a player finds a way to "drag" the Demonic Bird swarm to the Wall of Corpses, the birds die instantly. This triggers a minor logic error in the instance's sequence detection.
Furthermore, the elite monster structures within the mist exist in a strange, flickering state between being "manifest" and "hidden."
A structure only fully manifests once the player clears the previous one.
This mechanic seems solid, but it's actually flawed. The hidden structures aren't 100% non-existent; they just exist in a latent state.
If specific, repetitive movements are performed against them, even these latent structures will yield a slight feedback response.
Once this was discovered, some players got ideas.
After thousands of trials, these "mischievous" players finally discovered a cheating technique similar to wall-clipping in CSGO.
They could wedge themselves into the boundary between a structure's manifest and hidden states. This would mess with the detection mechanics, causing yet another logic glitch in the instance.
By layering these different mechanical flaws into a logical loop, and by walking thousands of precise steps through the mist, these clever players finally calculated a frame-perfect "skip path" accurate to the meter.
This path was so complex it was mind-blowing.
And Seraphine used exactly this path to skip nearly thirty stages in one go, reaching the Boss in a single step.
BUZZ... BUZZ... BUZZ!
The tremors deep within the dark fog intensified until finally, a colossal creature crawled out of the mist with a low growl.
It was a hundred-meter-long, spindle-shaped black spaceship. Its bow featured a giant eye and a massive maw, with ten sturdy limbs sprouting from each side. The surface was covered in a dense network of throbbing blue veins and blood vessels.
Black mist boiled around it as the leviathan crawled forward, sending waves of fog crashing outward.
This sentient spaceship was the final Boss of Nightmare Deep-Port, the New Category.
It had mysteriously mutated from a normal spacecraft into this, no, into this ship-shaped demon.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
A thunderous rumbling echoed.
Looking ahead, Seraphine could clearly see the vast areas of twisted relief carvings on the monster-ship's alloy surface as it drew closer.
Those carvings depicted various fierce, dark demonic entities.
Seraphine knew these reliefs would soon animate, wave after wave, turning into a tide of monsters.
So, she chose to strike first.
SWOOSH!
Seraphine's entire body erupted in roaring flames. With a sudden burst, she shattered the sound barrier, crossing the thousand-meter distance in a flash to stand before the New Category.
BANG!
Harnessing her extreme speed, Seraphine leaped into the air, instantly soaring high above the demonic spaceship.
While suspended, she flipped her body and unleashed over ten deep blue [Full Moon Slashes], which slammed heavily into the New Category's bow.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
A series of explosions erupted.
"ROAR!!!"
The New Category let out a furious howl. It thrashed and lunged, trying to crush the tiny "insect" buzzing above its head.
But Seraphine had already traced a circular arc through the air. She tapped lightly against the ship's hull and reached the thrusters at its stern in a single step, spinning to deliver another dozen vicious slashes.
"ROAR!!!"
The New Category shrieked in rage once more.
As the roar vibrated through the mist, the demonic reliefs on the hull animated, instantly turning into waves of monsters that surged toward Seraphine.
Seraphine transformed into a fiery tornado. In a rising spiral, she flew back above the New Category, flipped again, and unleashed dozens of blue crescent blade-beams downward.
Miraculously, these crescents shattered upon contact with each other, weaving into a vast, chaotic, and high-density web of energy that blanketed the New Category and its surrounding monster tide.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Reeling from the intense bombardment, the New Category's rage peaked. Its colossal body suddenly erupted with pulses of blood-black demonic light, corroding everything within hundreds of meters, including the very monsters it had spawned, into nothingness.
As the Boss unleashed its ultimate skill, the solemn, ancient strains of a piano piece suddenly began to play as the BGM within the fog sea.
Against this desolate and grand backdrop, a haunting soprano voice slowly emerged, chanting an ethereal and surreal hymn of praise.
A spaceport abandoned for eons, a ship returned from Hell.
A fearless warrior, after enduring countless trials, roars in defiance as she charges the deep-space demon vessel born of darkness.
This was how the final Boss battle of this instance was meant to unfold.
If the New Category possessed consciousness, it likely would have agreed.
But Seraphine, possessing an infinite health bar, completely rewrote the script.
Her attacks and movements were entirely unaffected by the blood-black demonic light. She darted up and down like a nimble firebird, weaving through the air and relentlessly hacking at the New Category's hull, grinding down its massive health bar.
Finally, after a period of time, the leviathan, having lost over half its health, could no longer endure it and raised its head with a deafening roar.
Amidst the roar, its entire structure twisted and buckled. BANG! BANG! The earth shuddered as it mutated into a hundred-meter-tall giant, complete with features, limbs, and a body half-flesh and half-machine.
"Good. Stage two. Health and attack increased, but defense is significantly lowered."
Seraphine, a ball of concentrated flame, dived from the sky and slammed into the giant.
BOOM!!
CRACK! SNAP!
The immense force of the impact drove her deep into the giant's soft, bloody abdomen in a split second. The raging flames instantly ignited the churning, writhing organs within its belly.
"ROAR!!"
The New Category shrieked in agony. It plunged a massive hand of fused flesh and steel into its own gut, snatching Seraphine out.
But just as it prepared to smash her into the ground, Seraphine unleashed ten blue crescent slashes.
CLACK! BANG!
They carved a massive, bloody gash across its wrist.
The New Category's grip loosened.
SWOOSH!
Seraphine flicked away instantly.
Before even hitting the ground, she hurled the Butcher's Blade, sending it whistling toward the giant's other wrist.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The crisp sound of rattling chains echoed through the air.
The handle of the thrown Butcher's Blade had long been tethered to a lengthy alloy chain.
The blade, carrying the chain, wrapped several times around the New Category's right wrist, creating a temporary anchor point. Seraphine sprinted along the taut chain, reaching the giant's broad right shoulder in a flash and retracting the chain with practiced agility.
Then, she swung her blade at the New Category's room-sized head, a grotesque fusion of metal and flesh.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
[Full Moon Slash], [Full Moon Slash], [Full Moon Slash], [Full Moon Slash]...
Before the New Category could even react, its features, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, were bombarded dozens of times by blade energy, hacked into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp.
In the next heartbeat, Seraphine didn't wait for the Boss's other massive hand to strike. She backflipped onto its spine. Using the Butcher's Blade chain for a rapid-descent climb, she darted across the giant's vertical back, setting fires and delivering horizontal slashes.
"UARGHHH!!"
The Boss shrieked in unbearable agony. It suddenly lurched forward, its massive feet pulverizing the ground as it bolted toward the depths of the dark mist.
"Trying to run? Not that easy."
Seraphine wasn't about to let the Boss escape.
According to the strategy guide, if this ship-giant successfully fled during stage two, the instance would end in failure. The player would be forced to restart from the very beginning.
That was unacceptable to Seraphine.
Clearing this instance on Commander Mode at such a low level would grant an astronomical amount of experience points, enough to potentially boost her level by dozens in one shot.
The Boss could not be allowed to escape; otherwise, all her effort would go to waste.
Seraphine swung the chain in a wide arc, dropping onto the giant's foot. Retracting the chain and swinging her blade, she struck viciously at its ankle.
BANG!!
CRACK! CRACK!
Over a dozen violent [Full Moon Slashes] converged into a single crescent of energy, instantly shattering a third of the New Category's ankle.
The sprinting hundred-meter giant, its balance destroyed, suddenly pitched forward, face-planting and sliding heavily across the ground.
THUD!!!
The New Category's immense weight hit the alloy floor with a thunderous roar, sending dust and debris flying in all directions.
Looking at the Boss, now fallen, stunned, and temporarily defenseless, Seraphine walked calmly to its front and began an endless barrage of slashes.
After a long duration...
BANG!
The battered and broken New Category finally perished.
Radiant light erupted, scattering a floor full of Equipment, Items, and Currency.
"Ding! Congratulations Player 『Great Demon King Seraphine』 for clearing the instance above Level 30 (+60). Rewards: Multiplied Boss EXP, Multiplied Instance EXP."
Ding... Ding... Ding...
The level-up notifications played in an endless stream.
"Ding! You have obtained Level 40 Class Skill: [Spiral Slash]."
"Ding! You have obtained Level 50 Class Skill: [Piercing Blade]."
"Ding! You have obtained Level 60 Class Skill: [Aura Condensation]."
"Ding! You have obtained Level 70 Class Skill: [Ruthless Blade Qi]."
Seraphine then opened her player interface:
Name: Great Demon King Seraphine
HP: 999999999999999
MP: 999999999999999
Strength: 430
Agility: 80
Constitution: 80
Spirit: 80
Level: 70
Experience: 20344 / 1648919
Class: Slaughter Ascetic - Frenzied Intent - Solitary Blade
Damage: 385
Defense: 125
Speed: 80
Weight Capacity: 80
Evasion: 7.0%
Critical Hit: 7.0%
Free Attribute Points: 350
Skill Points: 35
Equipment: Nuclear-Powered Butcher's Blade (Excellent) / Exquisite Gold Insignia (Excellent) / Alloy Cowboy Hat (Normal) / Stylish Leather Jacket (Normal) / Silver Pocket Watch (Excellent)
Items: Speedrun Strategy Guide (Player-made) ×1 / Molotov Cocktail ×9 / Adrenaline ×3 / Health Potion (Small) ×15 / Bandages ×12 / Mana Potion (Small) ×14
Currency: 923
Class Skills: [Blade Intent] / [Slash] / [Full Moon Slash] / [Spiral Slash] / [Piercing Blade] / [Aura Condensation] / [Ruthless Blade Qi]
Extra Skills: [Hellfire Crash]
Mystic Skills: None
Gazing at the screen, Seraphine tapped her finger.
SWOOSH!
In an instant, all Free Attribute Points were poured into her Strength attribute.
Her Damage value nearly doubled, jumping to 735.
With 735 Damage plus the various attribute boosts from her Equipment, Seraphine's Base Damage value had abruptly shattered the 1,000-point mark.
This stat was more than double that of a Level 100 player following a balanced build.
Yet, Seraphine had achieved this after clearing only three instances. Under normal circumstances, a dirt-poor average player would need to grind for two and a half years, or even longer, to reach such numbers.
"Skill Points..."
Seraphine had learned from the forums that players only receive a measly 5 points every 10 levels. These points are a critical resource for upgrading skills.
Aside from the extremely rare Mystic Skills, both Class and Extra Skills could be upgraded.
"So, which skill should I upgrade?"
With that thought, Seraphine scanned through her current repertoire.
[Spiral Slash] (Level 40 Class Skill): Surrounded by enemies, I strike but once.
The body rotates at extreme speed to counter enemies from all sides (Base Damage ×2). Duration: 10 seconds. Costs 200 MP. Can be toggled for continuous automatic use.
[Piercing Blade] (Level 50 Class Skill): The blade's aura blooms, piercing steel and iron.
A cold light extends one meter from the blade (Base Damage ×3), reducing the enemy's Defense value by 20%. Costs 300 MP.
[Aura Condensation] (Level 60 Class Skill): Killing intent enters the body, slaughtering all foes.
Reduces Max HP by 300, increases Damage attribute by +150. Costs 50 MP per second.
[Ruthless Blade Qi] (Level 70 Class Skill): A heartless being, loving only the blade in hand.
Unleashes physical blade energy with every swing (Base Damage ×2). Costs 600 MP.
"Oh?"
Upon reading the details for [Aura Condensation], Seraphine's eyes lit up, and she activated the skill immediately.
BUZZ!
In an instant, a crimson character for "Slay" slowly manifested above her head.
Right after, Seraphine's health bar flickered, and her max HP dropped by 300. However, the void was instantly filled, reverting back to the capped value of 999,999,999,999,999.
"So, my true HP isn't just limited to what's shown. The value must be so high it's causing a data overflow, which the game can't display properly."
Seraphine looked at her Skill Points and opened the upgrade interface for [Aura Condensation].
[Aura Condensation]: Level 1
Upgrade? Yes / No (Requires 1 Skill Point)
"Yes."
"Ding! Skill level has been increased."
[Aura Condensation]〔1〕 (Level 60 Class Skill): Killing intent enters the body, slaughtering all foes.
Reduces Max HP by 600, increases Damage attribute by +300. Costs 100 MP per second.
"Not bad. Keep going."
Seraphine began clicking rapidly.
Amidst a flurry of notification chimes, she burned through over half of her 35 Skill Points in one go. The skill level climbed several stages.
"Ding! Skill level has been increased."
[Aura Condensation]〔5〕 (Level 60 Class Skill): Killing intent enters the body, slaughtering all foes.
Reduces Max HP by 9,600, increases Damage attribute by +4,800. Costs 1,600 MP per second.
Now, with [Aura Condensation] permanently active, her Damage attribute soared to 5,535.
Compared to before, it had increased nearly eightfold.
When adding the 1.5x multiplier from her Level 10 Class Skill [Blade Intent], Seraphine's Damage value reached roughly over 8,000. If she were to fight that spaceship monster again, it would likely take only a few slashes to finish it off.
Next, Seraphine began looting the Equipment, Items, and Currency dropped by the New Category.
CLACK!
She tossed all the non-Damage-boosting Equipment into her inventory.
Very quickly, she finished re-equipping herself. Her equipment interface was now updated:
Equipment: Blade of the Deep Void (Radiant) / Thorns Gauntlets (Rare) / Dr. Will's Black Top Hat (Rare) / Gamma Trench Coat (Rare) / Photon Compass (Rare)
Blade of the Deep Void (Radiant): Damage +715. Added Skill: [Cosmic Phobia].
[Cosmic Phobia]: Those wounded by this blade will passively enter a "Deep Space" state for 10 seconds, suffering from oxygen deprivation, decompression, and radiation. (Target suffers Damage per second = Player's Base Damage × 5%)
Thorns Gauntlets (Rare): Damage +90, Defense +210.
Dr. Will's Black Top Hat (Rare): Damage +120, Defense +260.
Gamma Trench Coat (Rare): Damage +130, Defense +280.
Photon Compass (Rare): Damage +290.
Seraphine smiled softly. "Not bad. It's rare for a Boss to drop exclusively damage-boosting gear, especially with one piece carrying an extra skill."
With these equipment bonuses, her final Damage value abruptly reached 6,880. Combined with the [Blade Intent] buff, Seraphine's Base Damage easily broke 10,000.
Using this stat to unleash [Ruthless Blade Qi], every single slash would deal over 20,000 points of terrifying Damage. Since she hadn't PK'ed with any high-level players yet, Seraphine couldn't determine exactly how strong she had become.
However, based on the data from the forums, she estimated that most Level 100 players, relying solely on their Defense and HP, likely wouldn't survive a single hit from her [Ruthless Blade Qi].
It was impossible for any human player to abandon all other attributes solely to pursue ultimate Damage. Combined with her infinite HP and MP, Seraphine was destined to be the greatest Bug in the Brilliant World since the moment she transmigrated.
"Hmm?"
As Seraphine idly sifted through the pile of Items dropped by the Boss, she unexpectedly discovered a pitch-black cross buried within, no, it was a black inverted cross.
"This is..."
She slowly picked up the inverted cross, focusing her gaze on it.
SWOOSH!
Instantly, the item's name and description appeared in Seraphine's field of vision:
Dark Spaceship: Category
Item Description: This is a twisted spaceship born under the deep influence of evil strength from a different dimension.
The ship is shaped like an inverted cross. The vertical beam is 66.6 meters long, and the horizontal beam is 44.4 meters long. Both the thickness and width of the beams are 6.66 meters.
The framework and core components are composed of massive amounts of demonic bones, obsidian, brass, fossilized wood, mercury, tens of thousands of liters of human blood, and unknown anomalous materials. The total net weight of the ship is 666 tons.
The hull is constructed from high-energy state tungsten alloy; its primary power source is a civilian-grade lightweight subatomic fusion reactor, with a base speed of 1% the speed of light.
The interior includes a lounge, a cockpit, storage, and a Blood Sacrifice Altar.
"Dark Category..."
Holding the inverted cross, Seraphine suddenly recalled that the Speedrun Strategy Guide actually mentioned this item.
It stated that the drop rate for the Dark Category ship within the [Nightmare Deep-Port] instance was incredibly low, less than one in ten thousand.
Consequently, its collection value was quite high. However, that value was strictly for collectors, not for practical utility.
Why? Because the conditions required for the Dark Category's FTL warp were simply too bizarre.
Compared to normal ships, the overall operational mechanics and structural framework of the Dark Category were severely at odds with conventional science. It was as if a supernatural phenomenon had manifested in the form of a spaceship.
The reason for this comparison lay in its chaotic, poorly understood warp engine, which required the user to pour in their soul and life force to function. In plain gaming terms, if a player wanted to pilot this small ship at FTL speeds through the vast void, they had to sacrifice their Max HP and Max MP.
Max values, mind you, not just current points.
Because of this, no matter how much or how little it consumed, no player would ever use this ship to roam the stars. No one was willing to "sacrifice" the Max HP and Max MP they had painstakingly ground for. It was pure suicide, a self-crippling act.
Thus, the Dark Category was relegated to being a warehouse collectible rather than a functional tool.
"Interesting. It suits me perfectly."
Seraphine looked at the ship's parameters in her field of vision with great interest.
The text clearly stated: the Dark Category's bizarre and dangerous warp engine consumed 10,000 Max HP and Max MP to instantly leap a distance of 1% of a light-year, roughly 94.6 billion kilometers.
Seeing this, Seraphine realized why it was a mere collectible. "No wonder. A single starting leap could completely cripple a Level 100 player."
Indeed, the detailed specs noted that 1% of a light-year was merely the minimum distance for the Dark Category's FTL jump. Just the starting point. From that 1% upward, the warp distance could be stacked indefinitely.
Ten light-years, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, even ten million or ten billion light-years. There were absolutely no limits to its warp range.
Theoretically, if a player's Max HP and Max MP were high enough to satisfy the Dark Category's voracious appetite, it could carry them to any point within this server instantly.
In other words, to Seraphine, this Dark Category was effectively a Level 10 Warp ship with infinite speed. With it, she could instantly reach any coordinate in this server at will.
As for the deduction of Max HP and MP? Let it drain. If it could actually zero her out, she'd be impressed.
"Good, good, good. That's how we're playing? We're truly a match made in heaven."
A delighted Seraphine tossed the Dark Category into her inventory.
Regarding the designer, she had no idea why that fellow named Coo would create an item that normal players could never use. Who in their right mind would slash their own stats, especially in such a massive, suicidal way? It was utterly nonsensical.
Seraphine suspected that Coo was likely a guy who enjoyed quietly messing with people. Whether he was a troll or not was uncertain, but creating a ship that made countless players drool while being unusable was probably meant to satisfy some hidden, controlling ego, the kind that wants to manipulate the masses while staying in the shadows.
However, doing so had completely played into Seraphine's hands.
"Coo definitely didn't foresee a player with infinite health and mana bars."
Laughing, she hit the [ Exit ] option and vanished from that realm of dark, swirling mist.
BUZZ!
As the light around her flickered, Seraphine appeared outside the instance's light curtain.
Gazing at the vast ruins and twisted steel hundreds of meters away, she slowly drew the Blade of the Deep Void, a spiraling weapon that looked as if it were condensed from the dark vacuum of space.
Then, she slashed.
BANG!
In an instant, a finger-thick, several-meter-high curtain of pale white blade-light erupted, slicing diagonally toward a half-collapsed, derelict building in the distance.
SKREE! SKREE! SKREE!
Accompanied by the sharp, piercing screech of air and metallic ground being forcibly torn asunder, the physical blade energy struck the ruins hundreds of meters away with pinpoint precision.
CRACK!
It was like a red-hot knife through soft tofu.
The upper half of the building's metallic eaves and a portion of its silicon walls were sliced through effortlessly by the pure white blade-curtain. The severed sections fractured and slid into the surrounding rubble.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
As the heavy debris slammed down, the ruins erupted in a cacophony of crashes.
Next, Seraphine unleashed dozens, then hundreds of physical blade-beams in every direction. Like clusters of explosive thunder and lightning, they plowed into the sprawling architectural ruins surrounding her.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Centered on Seraphine, a dense, pale white mesh of blade-light radiated outward in a crushing wave, utterly shredding and annihilating the clusters of leaning ruins that hemmed her in.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
For a long moment, the sounds of shattering, exploding, and collapsing structures echoed incessantly.
"A single blade-beam deals over sixteen thousand Damage, and the attack range is impressive, hundreds, even thousands of meters."
Surveying the chaotic ruins and drifting ash around her, Seraphine's lips curled into a smirk. "It looks like clearing mobs in instances won't be such a chore anymore. Even Bosses will go down with just a few extra swings."
She immediately pulled the Dark Category from her inventory and tossed it a hundred meters away.
THUD!
Following a violent flash of lightning and swirling mist, the black, inverted cross-shaped spaceship, glowing with a faint red light, floated into existence dozens of meters away, its anti-gravity engines humming.
She stepped forward and pointed at the ship.
HISS!
In an instant, an oval hatch hissed open on the black hull. Seraphine stepped inside.
"Where to next? Hmm... Since the Royal Guild is so arrogant, let's head to their neck of the woods."
Minutes later, the Dark Category shot into the sky, leaving Nightmare Deep-Port behind as it soared into the vastness of space.
Shortly after entering the vacuum, the black ship erupted with a circular wave of energy. Twisting the surrounding space-time, it vanished from the spot instantly.