[SYSTEM ERROR]

The blood-red words hung in Henry's vision as he felt something slither under his flesh, a virus. He tried to shake it off, pulling his body in every direction, yet the words followed and the miserable feeling only increased.

[DEBUFFS APPLIED]

[SILENCED - STUNNED - ROOTED - PARALYZED]

Static noise filled his head. Henry tried to reach out to the overlord for help, but he couldn't keep his thoughts straight. His body refused to move; even his throat felt clogged as if some magical force had shoved a pylon down it.

[AFFINITY SWAPPED: UNDEAD -> HOLY]

He screamed. His flesh burned as divine light shone from above and forcefully rewrote his DNA. His midnight black hair fell out in clumps, leaving him bald. His ruby eyes dissolved and dribbled down his cheeks, leaving his eye sockets empty. The Nightmare followed a similar fate and collapsed to the ground.

Victor watched from the shadows; he debated charging up a [Doom Ray] and decimating the area, especially killing that mysterious mage. But he decided not to for many reasons. 'They called him a hacker, a term from Earth. Are there other people from Earth on this planet? If there are, that changes my plans once again...' Victor ignored his henchman's scream. Henry was both replaceable and summonable. 'What is more critical is data; that hacker is far too dangerous to approach without knowing the limit of his power. What if I carelessly attack, and that mage lowers my stats to zero? Would I cease to exist?'

Victor had grown an ego over the last few months. The monsters in this cursed forest offered little challenge, and his status page screamed overpowered, but what use is a stat page if a hacker can alter it? There may even be mages out there that can ignore stats and attack his soul. 'This world is vast, and I must remain humble and not let my ignorance cause my death.'

A few seconds passed, and the hacker's companions recovered. The gem golem that came up to Victor's waist in height shook the ground as it manoeuvred behind the hacker and covered his flanks with its enormous body.

'Ah, I see their strategy now.' Victor eyed the party members, 'The hacker is the most crucial component. I still don't know the limit of his power, but I assume Henry is at least an A-class threat, yet he was rendered useless by that spell....'

"CRYSTAL. FORTRESS," The gem golem shouted as he implanted his four limbs around the hacker; the ground trembled as a palace of stone with encrusted gems slowly rose and confined the hacker within its walls. The gem golem integrated into the stone palace and became the roof; eyes appeared atop crystal spires and scrutinized the treeline.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

With the hacker secured, a woman with flowing pink hair that reached her butt charged forward. She wore a hot pink bikini that failed to obscure her bulging muscles. She kicked the ground and shot through the air with a shout. She slammed into Henry like a pink wrecking ball causing his body to tumble a few meters through several trees. There was a loud crack as Henry's spine snapped in two as he rested against the final tree in a heap of blood and guts.

Under cover of dust and flying wood, a man wearing a business suit weaved his way through the destruction with unmatched skill; as he approached Henry, he unsheathed a black blade from his blazer and hurled it. For Victor, the world seemed to slow as the black-tipped blade cleaved through the air and obliterated Henry's entire head like a watermelon thrown from the top of the Eiffel tower.

Everyone paused as the dust settled. The bikini warrior grabbed a large branch and poked Henry's corpse, "Good shot Zedd, I think it's dead." She frowned, "But Sam, couldn't we have heard it out? It's rare for a corrupted to speak and even engage in conversation."

The crystal fortress crumbled as the hacker walked out with trembling steps. He looked haggard with dark circles around his eyes. "Yes, Eve. It was necessary." He leaned on his bamboo pole and took deep breaths.

Victor smiled from the shadows. 'Although I can't be sure, that mage looks out of commission.' With the major threat gone, Victor used his [Raise Undead] skill on Henry's corpse. Over a thousand stat points vanished from Victor's status page as Henry's corpse shuddered.

"Huh?" Eve turned and saw the corpse missing. "Hey, guys, it's missing!" She twirled towards her party members and failed to see the Nightmare emerge from her shadow with a furious rider. Without hesitation, Henry raised his spear and aimed to skewer the woman.

"Watch out!" Zedd shouted and darted towards his companion.

Henry had a ruthless grin as he thrust the spear with all his strength; a sonic boom resounded as the spear smashed into Eve. A pulse of orange energy shrouded the woman in a spectral suit of armour, and a loud ding echoed through the forest. Eve stumbled a little but was otherwise fine. Everyone stared at her as if she was a ghost. Even Victor was shocked; what he had just witnessed shattered his worldview.

'That bikini is a piece of armour?' Victor swore he would spend more time and effort learning about this world. This fight had humbled him greatly, 'Perhaps a stealthy visit to a city is in order.'

Henry stared at the tip of his spear in confusion, "Did the overlord give me a defective weapon? I am sure I hit that unarmoured woman with all my strength..."

Eve put her hands up in a boxing stance and slowly backed away, "Retreat." She hissed over her shoulder, "That hit took a lot out of me."

Without hesitation, the gem golem scooped up Sam in its massive hand and shielded him with the other.

In this critical moment, Victor had to make a hard decision with little information. 'Should I let them go?' It was a question not born from compassion but rather his survival. 'All they know is that a reasonably powerful undead has made its home in the cursed forest and that there may be a powerful necromancer lurking nearby. I don't think that information will warrant the same response from the Empire as four adamantite Delvers being killed, including a hacker.'

'If I reveal myself in an attempt to silence them and one of them successfully teleports away somehow, then I am fucked. Also, if I kill that hacker and his mentor or whatever hunts me down, my life will be far more difficult than it needs to be. So right now, my priorities are gathering intel and discovering a way to fix my constantly falling stats.'

Victor didn't want to be enemies with people he didn't even understand. 'I have to keep my ego in check. The Goddess listed Netherborne at ten points alongside other races like Dragons. So I am not above everything, but I am an apex predator.'

Content with his decision to let these people go, he communicated his thoughts with Henry over their connection, "Let them go but scare them off. We need to buy some time."

Henry galloped forward; flames flared from the Nightmare's nostrils as he barreled into Eve, knocking the wind from her lungs. Eve grabbed the horse's head with a pained expression; she dug her feet into the ground and tried to push the monster off, "Teleport us!"

An exhausted hacker lay in the Rock's hand; he shakily held up his bamboo pole and chanted, "Initiate program: Return Home." The group was gone in a flash of green light as if they had all just logged out.

Henry stood off to the side in silence. His face was dark with unresolved anger.

"Relax, you did well." Victor tried to console his henchman, "Without the hacker, we would have handled them easily."

Victor decided his next objective was to learn all about these hackers and any other potential threats to his existence in the future, and that required some infiltration. 'Luckily, I have the perfect girl for the job. Now, what is Alice up to...'

Victor went into his mind and looked across the black ocean. He glanced south toward his ice sculptures, but Terry was nowhere to be found. Victor frantically combed the black ocean until he looked directly north. 'Why the hell is Terry near the Grand Dungeon?'