Inside his spiritual sea, Cipher stared at the notifications flooding his vision.
His smile stretched wide.
[You have slain 500 Legendary-rank Creatures]
[You have slain 1,000 SSS-rank Creatures]
[You have slain 2,000 SS-rank Creatures]
[You have slain 5,000 S-rank Creatures]
[You have slain 10,000 A-rank Creatures]
[You have slain 20,000 B-rank Creatures]
[You have slain...]
[+ I ain't calculating allat EXP]
[+17,280,000 Cheat Points]
[You have leveled up!] x15,000
His breath quickened.
It had actually worked.
He had used his massive mana pool to cover the entire world, then expanded his perception through his mana - mimicking how he did it inside his spiritual sea. This allowed him to perceive every entity on the planet.
Through Appraisal, he identified which ones were outsiders.
Then he used Instant Death.
It failed on some of them. But for those, he simply used overwhelming mana manipulation to knock them unconscious instead. He carried them all together and revived them afterward.
The mass killing served multiple purposes.
First, it was a scare tactic - a way to reign them in and establish control.
Second, it helped him confirm something important. There were indeed people he couldn't kill. But these ones he encountered didn't have death immunity like Elara. They simply had Instant Death resistance.
This meant gods probably wouldn't be killed this way either.
Not that it mattered, he thought, pulling up his stats.
[Name: Cipher]
[Level: 15,779 (0/15,779,000)]
[Species: Majin]
[Class: Cheater]
[Health: 39,400/39,400]
[Mana: 3,940/3,940]
[Strength: 394]
[Stamina: 394]
[Agility: 394]
[Intelligence: 395]
[Stat Points: 30,000]
[Cheat Points: 17,280,000]
Unfortunately, it had all happened instantaneously. He hadn't been able to distribute free points mid-slaughter to adjust his true rank for even more stat gains.
Still, he had used the 4x EXP multiplier. That should make up for it a little.
He distributed all his points equally.
Now all his stats sat at 7,894 - except Intelligence, which had the extra point from before.
He could already feel his physical body in the outside world undergoing changes.
That being said... this was really disappointing.
He had killed all those powerful creatures and barely passed for a Perfect realm awakener. Not even close to where the Heavenly Demon had been back then.
He sighed.
Then he smiled.
He looked at what lay before him.
Thousands of corpses spread across his spiritual sea. Of course, not all was lost.
Although he had revived the intelligent creatures he killed, he kept all the unintelligent ones in his Infinite Inventory. What point was there in leaving them outside?
The benefits of capturing them were twofold.
First, he could use Stat Drain on them, gaining massive stat points.
Second, he could revive and kill them endlessly - gaining infinite experience and points.
He decided to put it to the test.
He walked over to an S-rank beast and placed his hand on its corpse. He activated Stat Drain.
[+5 Strength]
[+4 Stamina]
[+6 Agility]
[+3 Intelligence]
He smiled.
Then a thought occurred to him.
He revived the beast.
It stirred, about to move - but he killed it instantly. He didn't even use a skill. Since he was inside his spiritual sea, he simply willed it to die.
He was practically a god in here.
He activated Stat Drain again.
Nothing.
He smiled, though it was tinged with disappointment. Just as I expected.
It didn't increase. The cheat worked similarly to Skill Theft - only effective once per target.
Well, that was a shame.
Just as he was about to go on an absorption spree, he suddenly remembered something.
Right.
He had leveled up over a thousand major levels. That meant he could roll for cheats.
If he rolled, he might get Stat Drain duplicates and increase its level. A higher level meant absorbing a higher percentage of stats.
"Alright," he thought. "Let's do this..."
…
In the outside world
Cipher floated before all the captured outsiders.
They hung suspended in nets of mana - thousands of them. Dragons. Cultivators. Intelligent beasts. Warriors from countless dead worlds.
They murmured among themselves, casting nervous glances in his direction. Fear was evident in their eyes.
Cipher smiled warmly.
"Now, now. There's no need to be so tense," he said, spreading his hands in a calming gesture. "I don't bite. I'm actually quite an agreeable person."
No one seemed to believe him.
They just gave him sideways glances, keeping their distance even while trapped.
Says the person who killed thousands of people without a second thought just to make a point.
He scratched his cheek, still smiling.
It seemed they had misunderstood him.
Well, it didn't really matter.
"Instance Creation," he spoke.
He spread his hands wide.
Across the world, every gate began to tremble.
Then, one by one, they lifted from the ground. Thousands of space portals rose into the sky. They floated upward, pulled by an invisible force, converging toward a single point.
They began to collapse.
Each gate condensed, shrinking and compressing until they became small, planet-like orbs of swirling energy. They orbited around Cipher like celestial bodies circling a sun.
He brought his hands together.
All the orbs smashed into each other.
A blinding light exploded outward.
The shockwave swept across the globe. People shielded their eyes. The captured outsiders gasped.
When the light faded...
In the middle of the Association compound, a massive tower now stood.
It stretched upward. And upward. And upward.
There was no visible end. It simply continued into the heavens, piercing through the clouds and beyond, disappearing into infinity.
On the ground, the Chairman stared at the tower with his mouth hanging open. Other Association members stood beside him, equally stunned.
The Chairman blinked several times.
"Did he just... change the genre to tower climbing?"
…
Inside the Spiritual Sea
Cipher's eyes were practically glowing.
He didn't care which cheats he got anymore. He just rolled.
Again.
And again.
And again.
[Cheat Awakened: System Console]
[Cheat Awakened: Narrative Skip]
[Cheat Awakened: Status Theft]
[Cheat Awakened: Metamagic]
[Cheat Awakened: Nihility Collapse]
[Cheat Awakened: Soul Anchor]
[Cheat Awakened: Save State]
[Cheat Awakened: Reality Edit]
[Cheat Awakened: Time Menu]
The notifications kept coming. Endlessly. One after another.
He was about to roll again when…
Something shifted inside him.
A vibration.
Small at first. Then it intensified.
He felt as though all his insides were vibrating. Twisting. Turning.
In the outside world, his body erupted in invisible flames.
His skin began peeling away. But there was no blood. The flesh simply burned off, exposing what lay beneath.
Layer after layer fell away.
When it was done, he floated in the air - transformed.
His hair had grown so long it reached his waist. He was taller now. His features sharper. More refined.
He looked down at himself.
Then he pulled up his status.
[Name: Cipher]
[Rank: Creation (Absolute Source Fragment)]
[Intrinsic Skill: Creative Mode]