In the Dark Forest, Louis, known as the Sword God among the Twelve Gods, sat on a massive black boulder, engrossed in watching a video from years past.

Surrounding him were dozens of elite-level players. These top-notch players weren't rushing to level up; they quietly awaited Louis's orders, as if leveling up was less critical to them than the man who sat before them.

The area was eerily silent, the surrounding beasts already cleared by the group of elite players. The only sounds were those of combat emanating from the video before Louis.

This virtual world, hailed as a second reality, wasn't solely about leveling up, monster-slaying, or gathering equipment. There were features for the lifestyle players as well—watching videos being one of them.

However, to access such a feature, a fee was required—a trivial matter for someone like Louis.

The video showcased a swordsman taking on the ultimate boss, the Dark Overlord, in an older but once wildly popular game. The swordsman’s performance was breathtakingly precise; his maneuvers seemed to dance in harmony with combat, exhibiting skills often referred to as textbook-level.

It was a strategy that none of the billions of other players had ever attempted: soloing the boss. The video lasted 140 minutes, during which the swordsman sustained damage only once, due to the Dark Overlord's unavoidable ultimate skill. Otherwise, he remained unscathed.

"Untouched, a solo fight against the Dark Overlord"—a feat once considered impossible until Alexander burst onto the scene, shattering such preconceptions.

As the video came to an end, Louis sighed, his thoughts inscrutable. At this point, a middle-aged player, adorned in a necromancer's robe, approached him.

"Young Master, you’ve watched this video numerous times, haven't you? Haven't you already mastered his combat techniques?"

Louis, toying with the elite sword in his hands, his eyes tinged with a touch of melancholy, sighed again, "Mastered? Yes, I have mastered it."

"But still," Louis continued, a hint of frustration clouding his eyes, "I can never match his skill. He broke through to thirteen strikes per second. I haven't even managed ten."

"These techniques, they are uniquely his, stamped with his distinctiveness, tailored just for him."

The middle-aged player looked serious. "Young Master, are you planning to break free from his influence by creating your own skillset?"

Louis shook his head. "It's not that simple. His title as an eternal god isn't just because he invented new techniques.I just regret that I never had the chance to battle him.

I devoted myself to learning his techniques from the age of fifteen, spending five long years. On my twentieth birthday, I had finally mastered all his combat skills."

"Since that day, I've been searching for him tirelessly.I thought I could find him, heal his injuries, and when he was back to full strength, have a spar with him."

"But what I waited for was the news of his demise."

A shadow crossed Louis's eyes, then he shook his head and chuckled. "Well, what's done is done. The dead cannot be brought back. My current adversaries are the other eleven 'True Gods.'"

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Turning to the middle-aged player, Louis inquired, "Have you found any traces of Sofia?"

"Not yet, but some unconfirmed news suggests she's not one of the Twelve True Gods but a novice undead player."

"A novice player?" Louis's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.

"Is anyone assisting her in leveling up?"

"Nobody is helping her," the middle-aged player stated confidently.

"How interesting. If Edward knew that he hired thirty elites to level up and was surpassed by a novice, would he cough up blood in frustration?" Louis mused with a light smile.

In the Stone Wood, Alexander was taking a break, waiting for his skills to cool down.

His 'Quick Slash' skill had an 80-minute duration, while his 'Assault Armor' lasted for 30 minutes. Once the 'Assault Armor' wore off, he resorted to dodging and luring monsters to finish them off.

This method was slightly less efficient than using his bow to pull the monsters. But he had no choice; the cooldown for 'Assault Armor' and 'Quick Slash' was two hours each.

In this game world, the longer the duration of a skill, the longer its cooldown. Rest was inevitable.

Besides, he'd already cleared the Stone Wood three times over. The ground was littered with the corpses of stone men; not a single one remained.

Fortunately, after an hour's fierce battling, the gains were enormous: 130,000 experience points and an equal number of evolution points!

Name: Alexander

Level: 14 (Experience 31,588/40,000)

Race: Assault Vanguard Skeleton

Health: 1030

Mana: 730

Attack: 115 (Ruin-Splicing Boneblade Steel Blade +60)

Defense: 90

Agility: 30 (Attack speed: one strike every 2.5 seconds; Movement speed: one meter every 1.75 seconds)

Skills: Assault Armor (2), Plunder (Passive), Quick Slash (8), Split (Passive) (4).

Evolution Points: 131,588

Enhancement Points: 0

He had leveled up four times: 400 points added to both health and mana, 40 to attack, and 20 to defense. Unfortunately, his other attributes remained relatively unchanged, and he didn't manage to acquire the Stone Skin skill.

But Alexander had not paused until the cooldown of Quick Slash had reset and there were no more living creatures in the Stone Wood. Now, with 130,000 evolution points, he could evolve once more.

Every evolution was a thrill, a venture into the unknown. The allure of constant improvement was addictive.

After killing a few skeleton bears in Bear Mountain and handing them over to a seemingly expressionless Sofia, Alexander gestured in front of her. This time, she finally understood.

Sofia looked at Alexander with eyes full of awe, continuously grinding bone powder. While she had an inventory to store items, Alexander didn't. So, giving her this task was most logical.

"I need to evolve, and it might take some time. Summon some skeletons to stand guard," Alexander instructed, cracking his knuckles and gesturing.

"Ah, I...I get it," Sofia replied, albeit skeptically, doubting her own understanding.

"Did I really get it? Okay, I didn't get it." A shadow of frustration crossed her beautiful face. She didn't want Alexander to think she was useless, so she just nodded in agreement.

Sighing, Alexander could tell she didn't really understand, but only agreed to avoid his displeasure.

So, he had to demonstrate again.

Taking the staff from Sofia, he mimicked her skeleton-summoning gestures—his jawbone snapping, and staff rising. After completing the set of motions, he shrugged, asking her if she understood this time.

"Ah, I know now, Mr. Skeleton. You want me to summon skeletons to help me grind bone dust?" A look of excitement flashed across Sofia's face, and she eagerly reached for Alexander's staff to begin summoning.

But sensing a certain gravity in his expression, she hesitated, watching him cautiously.

Rubbing his forehead in exasperation, Alexander thought, "This is too difficult for me."

He returned the staff to Sofia and guided her to summon skeletons, arranging them in a fan shape around him in a cave hidden within a rock formation.

Only then did he begin the evolution process. Even this simple task took Sofia ten minutes to master.

She was amazed, "Is there really such a technique?"

Inwardly, Alexander wanted to say 'WTF,' but his skeletal form was incapable of vocalizing. His cautious approach was also fueled by having spotted some players fighting monsters on Bear Mountain.

Unlike NPCs, players were unpredictable. They roamed, and even low-level, daring ones liked to venture into the Stone Wood to try their luck. Evolution was a process that couldn't be interrupted; caution was necessary.

"The current evolution requires 10,000 evolution points. Evolution choices include: Skeleton Assault Armor Captain, Skeleton Longspear Captain, hidden evolution: Blood Prison Assault Skeleton Captain."