Name: Patch Card
Type: Code Card
Description: Removes all negative effects from a skill
Note: Skill costs (mana, stamina, HP, etc.) are not considered negative effects. Only side effects like stat reductions, debuffs, or harmful conditions count as negative effects. Example: A Berserk skill that reduces Intelligence by 50% can have that penalty removed while keeping its damage boost and stamina cost.
Skill: Iron Skin (E-Rank) - 200 CP
Type: Passive
Cost: 0 Mana
Description: Reduce physical damage taken by 15%. Always active.
After some thought, he reasoned that although it was a nice skill, ultimately, it wasn’t worth the two hundred points. With those, he could get two cards which would be much more useful. And besides, he could already protect himself with mana manipulation as long as he had the required mana.
He looked at the Patch Card. It was a great card. If used with mod cards like Rework, Malware, Mirror, or Exploit, it would definitely be a great combination. But in the end, it was still not worth it at the moment as he had no use for it.
He closed the system and went to search for his second monster, which he found a few moments later and killed quickly.
[You have slain D-rank Demon (Level 32)]
[+24,000 EXP]
[+40 Cheat Points]
[You have leveled up!]
He put one into Strength, finally bringing all his stats to the D-rank threshold. As for the remaining single point, he put it into Intelligence.
He opened the Cheat Shop to check what new items were there.
His eyes widened as he saw the new cards. A Blank Card and a Merge Card. These were like the best possible cards. He had to buy them.
Blank gave one of the best editions - the Negative edition, which allowed the skill not to take up a slot. And the Merge Card allowed him to merge skills or cards, allowing for multiple editions on a skill. If he had a Negative Seeded skill, wouldn’t that be totally overpowered?
He bought both the Merge and Blank cards.
Another advantage he saw from this was for the Heavenly Demonic Sword Art. Since the sword art was a Unique Skill, if he gave it the Negative and another edition, not only would it be even more powerful, it would also mean he could have multiple Unique Skills.
He didn’t know much about unique skills, but he’d never heard about anyone having more than one Unique Skill, so he assumed that a Unique Skill probably took its own special skill slot, different from the traditional skill slots.
If this was truly the case, he might be able to hoard Unique Skills.
He exhaled. Well, this was all speculation. Besides, there was no guarantee that he would gain another Unique Skill even if he was correct and ended up with an extra skill slot for it.
After buying the two cards, he was back to having 140 Cheat Points.
He closed the system and went to hunt the final monster.
[You have slain D-rank Demon (Level 30)]
[+25,000 EXP]
[+40 Cheat Points]
[You have leveled up!]
He put the new points all into Intelligence to increase his mana capacity.
He then opened the Cheat Shop to see the new cards.
The first card was a Commit Card.
Name: Commit Card
Type: Code Card
Description: Destroys target skill completely and generates a new random skill of the same rank.
Note:
And the second card was... his eyes widened.
"This is..."
...
The Heavenly Demon’s blade met the Demon God’s massive clawed hand with a thunderous impact that shook the whole world around them.
She managed to hold her ground for a split second before the force sent her flying backward, crashing through several trees before finally slamming into the earth, carving a crater into the ground.
Dust and debris exploded outward.
Before she could rise, thousands of demons surged toward her.
She floated upward, her body radiating dark energy. With a single horizontal slash, everything within a mile radius simply ceased to exist. The demons didn’t scream. They didn’t bleed. They just... vanished, turned to nothingness by the absolute authority of her blade.
She stared across the devastated landscape at the Demon God, several miles away.
The creature waved its massive hand. More demons materialized from the darkness - hundreds, thousands, an endless swarm.
The Heavenly Demon didn’t hesitate and shot forward. Demons exploded into mist with each swing as she carved a straight path through the horde.
She reached the Demon God and drove her blade toward its neck.
The creature caught her sword with its bare hand - its scales screeching against steel - and hurled her backward.
She flipped mid-air, regaining her balance, and immediately charged back.
Their clash resumed. Strike after strike.
As she fought, a thought crept into her mind.
She was being more careless than before. Usually, she prepared to the fullest, made perfect moves, executed flawless strategy. But now? She was just fighting. Just swinging. Like a rogue with no plan.
Why was that?
Was it because of what she’d learned about the world?
She already knew about the soul erosion. She knew she didn’t have that many more loops left. So why was this different? Wasn’t it just the same?
She gritted her teeth.
No. She wasn’t going to accept this.
She was going to open a new path. If this world was dead, then couldn’t she move to another one? Her soul was still intact - she was still alive. It was the world that was dead, not its people.
Was that what the so-called Time God was trying to save?
After all, what was the point in preserving a dead world in a loop? It made sense that the god was trying to preserve the people inside, not the world itself.
Could it be...
She looked at her sword - the blade that absorbed all light around it.
She had found this sword from a meteor that had fallen from space in the first loop. She wondered if it was from the Time God.
And the sword wasn’t the only thing she’d gotten. She had also received a "skill," but she had locked it inside herself, refusing to use borrowed power that didn’t belong to her.
She clenched her fist on the sword hard as she deflected another strike from the Demon God.
Although it hurt her pride to do this, she still wanted to try.
Usually, when she tried leaving the world, there was always some barrier she couldn’t break through surrounding it. Even through the Gates the demons came in and the Temple the heroes came in - she had tried all of it. Neither worked.
"If I use that skill, can I tear open a path?" she wondered.
She dodged an attack from the Demon God, then began gaining altitude - rising higher and higher into the sky until she broke through into space. This was the limit of how far she could go.
She looked opposite her at the Demon God, who had followed.
She held her sword with both hands and raised it above her head. Then she began channeling qi into it.
She closed her eyes, concentrating.
More and more energy gathered into the sword. There was so much energy that even the space around her became unstable, rippling and warping.
The usually expressionless Demon God seemed afraid of what she was doing. It charged at her desperately.
Just as the Demon God was about to reach her, her eyes snapped open.
They now glowed with a brilliant blue light.
Her skin began to show cracks...
"First Sword," she spoke softly.