**Chapter 23: The Hidden Stat**
**Day 1,155.**
**Location: The Moon (Sea of Tranquility).**
**Atmospheric Pressure: 101.3 kPa (Artificial).**
**Current Status: Terrified of Math.**
There is a flaw in the concept of infinity. The human mind treats it as a destination—a place you arrive at eventually if you just keep counting. But infinity isn't a place. It's a rate of change. And when that rate applies to your own biological mass, it stops being a philosophical concept and starts being a horror story.
I stood on the ridge of the Tycho Crater, my porcelain mask reflecting the blue-white marble of Earth hanging in the void. Below me, the armies of humanity were assembling.
General Sterling's *Arcane Battalion* was a grid of grey steel, five thousand soldiers locking shields in perfect unison.
Damon's *Crimson Blades* were a chaotic blood-splatter, sharpening their weapons and roaring challenges at the stars.
Elena's *Sanctuary* was a glow of white and gold, casting pre-battle buffs that lit up the lunar dust like bioluminescent algae.
And Ren... Ren was standing alone on a spire of rock, his black coat fluttering in the artificial wind I had created, staring down the massive, chitinous bulk of the Myriad Scout.
It was a beautiful tableau. The culmination of months of manipulation, coding, and social engineering. I had turned a planet of accountants and baristas into a planet of dragon-slayers.
But I wasn't looking at them. I was looking at the System interface hovering in the corner of my vision.
**[Day 1,155 Calculation Complete.]**
**[Daily Growth Applied.]**
**[Base Multiplier: 1.10x.]**
**[Tithe Feedback Bonus: +0.05x.]**
**[Total Daily Growth: 15%.]**
I stared at the number.
Fifteen percent.
For three years, it had been ten percent. A steady, predictable, terrifying climb. But ten percent was manageable. I had built the facility, the Sarcophagus, the cooling loops—all calibrated for a 1.10x curve.
But since the launch of the *Warfronts*, and specifically since the *Sovereign Immunity* update, the number had climbed.
"Zero," I whispered, my voice confined within the helmet of my Void Robes. "Run the projection. Why the jump?"
**[Analyzing,]** Zero's voice echoed in my mind. **[The Tithe mechanism collects excess bio-energy from players. However, the efficiency of the transfer is dictated by the 'Connection Quality'.]**
"The tech is the same," I argued. "The Black Boxes haven't changed."
**[The hardware hasn't changed, Architect. The software has. The 'Hidden Stat'.]**
"What hidden stat? I wrote the code. There are no hidden stats."
**[Belief,]** Zero stated.
I froze.
**[When you appeared to them—when you stopped the PvP war and showed them the stars—you shifted their perception. You are no longer just a Game Administrator. To the 72 million active users, you are a Deity. Belief acts as a superconductor for Prana. Their faith reduces the resistance in the connection. You are receiving 100% of their output, amplified by their devotion.]**
I felt a cold sweat break out on my skin.
I had wanted to be a Dungeon Master. I had accidentally become a Messiah.
And the math was catastrophic.
If I grew by 15% today, and 15% tomorrow...
I did the mental calculation. At 10% growth, I doubled in power every seven days. At 15% growth, I doubled every *five* days.
The curve was going vertical.
"I'm getting too big," I murmured. "Zero, if this continues for another month..."
**[Projection: In 28 days, your gravitational mass will exceed that of the Earth's core. Your mere presence on the surface will cause tidal locking. You will tear the planet apart just by standing on it.]**
I looked at the Earth. My home. The place where I used to file spreadsheets and drink bad coffee.
I was going to eat it. Not because I wanted to, but because I was growing too fat with godhood.
"Architect!" Ren's voice cut through my internal crisis via the System link. "The Scout. It's opening."
I snapped back to the present.
Down in the crater, the Myriad Scout—the biological mountain that had fallen from the sky—was waking up. The carapace shifted, groaning with a sound that vibrated through the lunar regolith.
Thousands of hatchways along its flank hissed open.
They didn't release smoke. They released the Swarm.
Tens of thousands of *Void-Crawlers*—creatures the size of cars, armed with scythe-limbs and plasma spitters—poured out like black oil.
"Hold the line!" General Sterling roared over the global comms. "Shields up! Fire at will!"
The Battle for the Moon had begun.
***
The clash was silent for a split second before the artificial atmosphere carried the sound. Then, it was a thunderclap.
The Arcane Battalion unleashed a volley of fireballs so dense it looked like a solar flare. The front line of the Void-Crawlers evaporated.
"Easy!" Damon shouted, leaping into the fray with his blood-iron greatsword. He cleaved a Crawler in two, bathing in the purple ichor. "They bleed just like the sims!"
But the Scout wasn't done.
From the top of the massive beetle-like structure, a primary cannon unfolded. It was organic, pulsating with a sickly green light. It aimed not at the players, but at the *sky*.
"It's targeting the orbital relays," Zero warned. "It intends to sever the connection to Earth."
"If the connection cuts, the players lose their powers," I realized. "Their bodies will revert to baseline humans in a vacuum. They'll die instantly."
I couldn't let that happen.
"I need to disrupt the aim," I said.
I raised my hand.
I didn't want to destroy the Scout. If I hit it, I might crack the moon. I just wanted to nudge it. A gentle push.
I gathered a fraction of my power. Not 1%, not 0.1%. I visualized the smallest unit of force I could muster. A microscopic flick.
I sighed, expelling the breath and the intention simultaneously.
*Whoosh.*
The air in front of me—the thin, artificial atmosphere I had crafted to allow the humans to breathe—reacted to my sigh.
Because I was 15% stronger today. Because my "breath" was now infused with the resonance of seventy million believers.
The sigh didn't just move air. It compressed it.
A shockwave erupted from my lips. It wasn't a breeze. It was a hyper-pressurized wall of force moving at Mach 10.
It tore across the crater.
"Wait," I said, reaching out as if to grab the wind back.
The shockwave hit the battlefield.
It didn't hit the Scout. It hit the flank of the *Arcane Battalion*.
Five hundred soldiers—Level 30 Titans in heavy plate armor—were lifted off their feet. They were tossed like ragdolls, tumbling through the low gravity, smashing into rocks, into each other. The shield wall shattered.
The shockwave continued, hitting the crater wall, carving a canyon through solid rock before dissipating into the vacuum.
Silence fell over the comms.
"What the hell was that?" Damon screamed. "Friendly fire! Who threw that?"
"Meteor strike?" Sterling gasped, checking his HUD. "No... atmospheric anomaly. A sudden pressure spike."
I stood on the ridge, my hand still outstretched.
I had just sighed. And I had nearly wiped out a battalion.
"Zero," I whispered, horror dawning on me. "I can't fight."
**[Assessment confirmed. Your output floor has risen too high. The minimum force you can exert exceeds the structural integrity of the combatants.]**
If I punched the Scout, the shockwave would kill the players. If I ran down there to help, my footsteps would cause earthquakes.
I was a bull in a china shop, and the china shop was made of wet tissue paper.
"I have to watch," I said, lowering my hand. "I have to sit here and watch them die because if I try to save them, I'll kill them faster."
***
Down in the crater, the situation was deteriorating.
The Scout's cannon fired. A beam of green plasma struck the orbital relay satellite.
**[System Alert: Connection Signal Destabilized.]**
**[Latency Spiking: 400ms... 900ms...]**
Across the battlefield, players stuttered. A mage cast a spell, and it appeared three seconds later. A tank raised a shield, but the Crawler hit him before the server registered the block.
"Lag!" someone screamed. "We have lag!"
The Void-Crawlers surged. Without the disciplined shield wall of the Battalion—which was still recovering from my accidental wind-blast—the line broke.
The Crawlers poured into the gap.
"Retreat!" Sterling ordered. "Fall back to the portal!"
"No retreat!" Damon roared, swinging wildly. But even he was slowing down. The signal lag was making his movements sluggish. A Crawler clamped onto his leg, its mandibles tearing through his armor.
"Damon!" Elena shouted from the backline. She cast a heal, but the green light fizzled in the air, delayed by the connection drop.
Ren was the only one moving freely. His *Void Walker* class allowed him to step between the server ticks. He blinked through the chaos, appearing on the Scout's carapace.
"Architect!" Ren shouted into the void. "The relay is down! We need a signal boost! Do something!"
I heard him. But I was paralyzed.
If I boosted the signal with my own energy, I might fry their Black Boxes. If I jumped down to defend them, I'd crush them.
I was the God of Power, and I was impotent.
*Think, Shigu. Think.*
The problem was the *Hidden Stat*. The Belief. The connection was a two-way street. They fed me energy, and I fed them reality.
If I couldn't lower my output... I had to increase their capacity.
I had to widen the pipe.
"Zero," I commanded. "The Tithe. Reverse the polarity."
**[Warning: Reversing the Tithe flow will flood the player network with your raw, unrefined Prana. Their nervous systems are not conditioned for God-Tier energy. You will burn them out.]**
"Not if I filter it," I said. "Not if I use the *World* as the filter."
I looked at the moon beneath my feet. The dead, grey rock.
"I can't touch the players. But I can touch the stage."
I knelt down. I placed both palms on the lunar surface.
"System Override," I intoned. "Initiate **Domain Expansion**."
I poured my energy not into the air, not into the players, but into the Moon itself.
*Push.*
The 15% growth—the massive, terrifying excess of power—flowed out of me. It traveled through the regolith, glowing like veins of liquid gold spreading across the crater floor.
The ground began to hum.
"What is this?" General Sterling shouted as the ground beneath his boots lit up.
"I am changing the rules," I whispered, sweat beading on my forehead under the mask.
**[Global Zone Update: The Moon.]**
**[Environment Type: Sanctified Ground.]**
**[Effect: Infinite Mana. Cooldown Reduction: 80%.]**
**[Buff: The Architect's Grace (All players gain 'Avatar' status).]**
I wasn't fighting for them. I was turning the battlefield into a cheat code.
The gold light erupted from the ground, enveloping every player.
Damon, who was being dragged down by three Crawlers, suddenly glowed. His fatigue vanished. His armor knit itself back together.
"Infinite Mana?" Damon laughed. He raised his hand.
**[Skill: Blood Storm.]**
Usually, this was an ultimate ability with a 10-minute cooldown.
Damon cast it. Then he cast it again. And again.
A tornado of crystallized blood erupted around him, shredding the Crawlers.
"Unlimited Power!" Damon roared.
On the left flank, the Arcane Battalion recovered.
"Continuous fire!" Sterling ordered. "Don't stop casting!"
Five thousand mages unleashed a solid beam of fire that didn't flicker, didn't pause. It was a laser of pure magical destruction. It swept across the swarm, vaporizing everything it touched.
Elena stood in the back. She raised her staff.
**[Skill: Mass Resurrection.]**
Golden light flooded the battlefield. The soldiers who had died—their bodies dissolving into pixels—suddenly reformed. They stood up, fully healed, weapons ready.
"They can't kill us," Elena realized, tears in her eyes. "We're immortal."
I knelt on the ridge, pouring my soul into the rock. It was agonizing. It felt like bleeding out. I was draining my reserves faster than the Tithe could replenish them.
"Ren!" I projected my voice. "I bought you time. I bought you ammo. Kill the Scout!"
***
Ren felt the surge. The gold light rising from the moon wasn't just mana; it was *heavy*. It felt like the Architect's presence.
He looked at the Scout. The cannon was charging again.
Ren stood on the carapace.
"Cooldown reduction 80%," Ren calculated.
Normally, his *Void Step* had a 2-second delay. With this buff?
"Instant transmission," Ren grinned.
He vanished.
He didn't appear in one place. He appeared in a hundred places simultaneously. The afterimages lingered, creating a legion of Rens.
*Slash. Slash. Slash.*
He moved across the Scout's surface like a belt sander made of obsidian knives. He targeted the hatchways, the sensory clusters, the joints.
The Scout screamed, thrashing. It tried to shake him off, but Ren was everywhere.
"Open the core!" Ren shouted to the army below. "I'm exposing the heart!"
Ren blinked to the center of the cannon array. He drove his *Star Metal* daggers into the housing mechanism.
**[Skill: Spatial Rend.]**
He cast it ten times in one second.
The metal casing of the cannon shredded. The glowing green core was exposed.
"NOW!" Ren screamed.
Below, fifteen thousand players looked up.
"Target the core!" Sterling ordered.
"Burn it!" Damon yelled.
"Smite it!" Elena commanded.
A pillar of combined magic—fire, ice, lightning, holy light—erupted from the crater floor. It was a beam of pure human will, fueled by the infinite battery I had provided.
It struck the exposed core.
The impact was silent in the vacuum, but the light was blinding.
The Myriad Scout convulsed. The green light of its core turned white, then gold.
It didn't explode outward. It imploded. The massive biological structure collapsed in on itself, consumed by the magical overload.
In seconds, the mountain-sized beetle was gone. All that remained was a massive crater within the crater, and a rain of black ash.
**[VICTORY.]**
**[Global Quest Complete: First Contact.]**
***
I slumped forward, my hands still pressed against the lunar dust.
The golden veins in the ground faded. The *Infinite Mana* buff dissipated.
I was exhausted. For the first time in years, I felt... drained.
"Status," I croaked.
**[Daily Growth: Reset.]**
**[Current Energy Reserves: 12%.]**
**[Moon Structural Integrity: 68%.]**
I laughed weakly. I had nearly cracked the moon anyway.
"Zero," I whispered. "Teleport me back to the facility. Before they look up and see me panting."
**[Initiating.]**
A blue flash.
I was back in the Sarcophagus, deep beneath the Atacama. The heavy lead suit clamped down on me. The darkness was comforting.
I closed my eyes.
I had saved them. But I had learned something terrible.
My growth wasn't just a number. It was a distance. The stronger I got, the further away I became from humanity. Today, I had to turn the moon into a battery just to interact with them without killing them.
Tomorrow? Next week?
"Architect?" Zero asked. "Are you injured?"
"No," I said, looking at the blue box hovering in my vision.
**[Day 1,155 Complete.]**
**[Preparing for Day 1,156.]**
"I'm just... incompatible."
I pulled up the image of Ren, celebrating on the moon with the others. They were cheering, hugging, looting the ash.
They were heroes.
And I was the environment hazard.
"Zero," I said, my voice hardening. "We need to accelerate the plan. The *Avatar Project*."
**[That project is theoretical. Constructing a biological vessel capable of containing your consciousness with limited power output... it would require materials we do not possess.]**
"Then we find them," I said. "Because if I stay in this body... if I keep growing at 15%..."
I looked at the Earth on the screen.
"I'm going to have to leave."
The boredom was gone. Replaced by a desperate, ticking clock. I had forty days until the main fleet arrived. But I might have less than that before I became too divine to exist.
**[End of Chapter 23]**