Back to Ruri's side.

One push of a button and the Capsule Pod cover closes. At that moment, various parts of the Capsule glowed, signaling that the engine was starting to operate.

"Link Start!"

Ruri closed her eyes, allowing the Pod to connect her brainwaves to the Quantum Network.

Her field of vision instantly darkened with the familiar start notification.

Immediately after that, the notification closes and the scene changes to a digital space with lots of fractal objects moving in the background. Her consciousness drifted silently in the corridors of the Quantum Network, waiting for something.

Then, not long after.

A notification window appeared in her mind.

The Quantum Network identifies Ruri based on her brainwave patterns.

It was a unique identification that was impossible to fake, at least not yet with today's technology. The process was fast, taking no more than 10 seconds to complete.

This authentication method was different from biometric authentication which is imperfect and still has the possibility of account hijacking. There are many cases of security breaches with biometric authentication, for example, by placing a high-resolution photo of the victim's fingerprint or retina on the authentication scanner and the account can simply be hacked.

But the brain is different, even if someone pries your head and takes your brain, they still can't use your brain waves!

And so, through a thought command, Ruri chose VRG - Ascension (Japan Server).

Immediately after that, the color of the pop-up window changed, along with the contents of the message.

As the message ended, Ruri's consciousness moved automatically at high speed within the Quantum Network. Something directed her dive in a certain direction.

She didn't refuse and allowed herself to dive towards the destination network address.

Not long after, she stopped and entered a security gate, not far from her position. That was her destination, as well as the network address of Ascension game server.

The fractal objects in the background quickly disintegrate into fine particle and the Ascension logo started to appear, accompanied by a familiar BGM that Ruri have heard every day.

While waiting for the loading screen to finish, Ruri listened to the song without any emotion.

The song is not particularly bad, on the contrary, it was considered as a masterpiece. But when you heard the same song over and over every day, you couldn't help but grow numb to it.

She didn't have to wait for too long. Five minutes later, the scenery changed and Ruri appeared inside a dilapidated hall of an unnamed ruins, in Hecate's body. Her attire was still wearing black cloak and disturbing mask like before.

The difference is, above her head there is a bright red writing that says her name. Naturally, the effects of the Crime Scroll had long since expired, so her name could no longer be hidden.

"Fortunately, there are no one here or else I will be in trouble."

Sighed in helplessness, she waved her hand and clicked another hotkey button to change her entire equipment set.

In that instant, her appearance returned to a normal loli Archwitch.

Now even if someone sees her red name, they won't connect her to the fugitive Black Phantom. At most, they probably just look at her as another PK-ers.

Hecate checked her status window and nodded with a satisfied smile.

Mana Explosion from Eldritch Bone Wand can't be used until next week, and there also karma deduction for each spell used with the wand equipped. So, it's more useful for Hecate to replace it with her Lunar Wand. Although it was not as good as the former, Lunar Wand still has Set Equip effect that increases Hecate's firepower by 40%.

More importantly, no more karma deduction when casting spells.

Hecate used the available stat points to increase her INT by 1. There are only 33 points after the level ups, but to increase her INT from 220 to 221 requires 24 points. The more she uses her stat points to INT, the more points required to use it. Even so, she still did it.

Everything was in order to pursue the ultimate firepower!

"Done, now to replenish items..."

She closed the window and walked to the Save Crystal in the center of the hall. Everything was in ruins, but the Save Crystal is still glowing with vigor. As if everything here was not a ruins and still belongs to the civilization.

With a touch, the crystal glows brighter and a window appeared in front of Hecate.

Ignoring the greyed choice, Hecate sent all of the loot inside her inventory into the storage. Then, she checked the cash shop.

Large number of items were neatly arranged, formed into a list. This is cash shop, where premium items can be bought with real money. Though, most of the items here were consumable or joke equipment, and they have purchase limit per day so tycoons can't abuse them to tilt the game balance too much.

Hecate sorted the items by "Recent Purchase" category and the long list has trimmed into only just few items.

Those items were the cash items that she bought regularly, especially Exp Potion and Life Insurance Scroll. Amnesia Stone was used to change her builds into the current one, who discards everything in order to bring most destructible power.

As for Condensed Hi-Potion and Hi-Ether Boxes, Hecate did not use potions nor there is any need to use, but they were the most popular demand in the market and can bring quick buck of Gold.

Hecate pressed the purchase button and bought out 4 Exp Potion, 5 Life Insurance Scroll, and 1 Crime Scroll.

The total costs was 1075.

"Life Insurance must not be empty. With my paper-like defense and +800% damage taken, a scratch is already lethal."

Negative karma makes her Exp and Drop Penalty become doubled. This means she will lose 2 levels if she died without activating Life Insurance. She can only cry blood if that truly happens.

With 1 = ¥50, she spent ¥53570 ($488.82) in that push of button. And including every items she bought at the day, her expenditure reaches 2150, or equals ¥107500 ($980.93)!

Hecate frowned in a thought as she calculated her own spending rate.

"Hmm, I think I need to make another DIY stuff again later... preferably that can sold in a very high price."

But that can be done later.

For now, Hecate will have to clear her name first... by grinding monsters.

Negative karma point can be neutralized by defeating 10 monsters for each karma point. Meanwhile, her current karma was -140. In order to make that number to 0 and return her red name to normal before tomorrow, Hecate had to kill 1400 monsters!

Hecate closed the login limit timer notification and let out a sigh.

"My login limit for the day is still around 4 hours. To kill 1400 monsters in just 4 hours... Haah..."

Just imagining the number, Hecate couldn't help but shudder. However, for her this was still achievable.

If any other players were to do extreme grinding non-stop without rest, their bodies might not endure it and fall ill. However, this problem would not befall Ruri.

Thanks to the Elixir she drank in the real world earlier, her body and mind had completely recovered to their peak. Elixir is truly a magical drink. Any injury or illness healed immediately, no matter how deplorable her lifestyle. This was also the reason why her levels are so high in a game where bots or cheats are impossible.

Because she has turned herself into a hunting bot!

Now that her preparation are complete, Hecate closes the window and walked into one of the door in the right side.

But before that...

"Mystical Amplification!"

Hecate drank a bottle of Exp Potion and activated the Mystical Amplification skill first.

Done with that, Hecate proceeds to open the door. The moment she does that, a scenery which probably the main reason why nobody dares to hunt and leveling up in this place was shown in front of her.

*Hisss* *Hisss* *Hisss* *Splurt* *Splurt*

Meat, Meat, Meat, Meat, Maggot, Maggot, Meat....

Almost the entire wall and ceiling of the corridor is mostly filled with chunk of meat that throbbed every few seconds in a rhythm, as if it was alive. Sometimes, the meat would spurt some kind of yellow liquid like pus and a large number of cat-sized maggots appears inside the wounds. The stench also definitely not a pleasant one to smell.

[⁂][Maggot - Lv122]

The name really did said Maggot, but they weren't any kind of maggots that she knew from the biology class. They has countless small tentacles in their entire body that constantly moves. And in each of their tentacles, more precisely in the tip, there was an eyelid that reveals a small eye-ball.

In the ceiling, beside the meat, it also filled with huge cobwebs that have few cow-sized spiders with dreadful appearance. They did nothing but observe, sometimes snacking on the maggot that trapped into its web. Even so, it still a threat and could attack any player that dared to walk below them anytime.

[⁂][Veliperalocator Spider - Lv135]

Don't forget that Ascension is a Virtual Reality game. People can feel sense of touch and smell as close as the real thing. If weak-hearted people were to see this scenery, they might faint and urinate themselves in their real body.

Numerous maggots creeping up from every corner of the wall and ceiling, some also fall into the floor but they basically crawled their way towards Hecate's position. Not only that, the maggots were Lv122 and it's HP pool is not low. At least it wouldn't die in one or two strikes. That is, if the opponent was not Hecate.

"PERISH TO NOTHINGNESS, MAGGOTS! CYCLONIC STORM!!"

With the wave of her wand, Hecate casts a wind storm that wrecks havoc to whatever in front of her path.

WHOOOOOOSHHHH!!

SHUA! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

-50344  -50664  -50234  -50424  -50435  -50734  -50845  -50210  -50193  -50030  -51023  -50275

Just a single spell was able to create devastating destruction to the enemy. Even the spiders that stays in the ceiling was not spared from her rampage.

The chunk of meat in the wall shredded into fine pieces and its acidic fluid splattered in the air, making "pshhh" sound to whatever it touches. Mucus from the maggots were sprayed everywhere, making the place become thicker with foul stench.

Such stench did not affect Hecate to step forward and loot the corpses.

In the pursuit of power, any hesitation can be feed to the dogs!

Utilizing the +5 Shadow Walker shoes that increases her speed, Hecate's movement was faster than average player even though her AGI stat is only 1. She runs and touched all the loot-able things in her path.

Although this world was a VR world that was very similar to the real world, but in the end it was undoubtedly a game.

Hecate didn't need to put the loot into the bag with her hands like common sense in the real world.

She only needs to touch the item and a confirmation window will appear.

The confirmation window also does not require pressing with her finger.

With just one simple wish "Yes!" or "Collect!" from her brainwaves would also act as valid commands, and the loot would be safely transferred to her Inventory space.

If the loot collected by the Player is in the form of liquid or gas, the system will detect any container that can be used to collect the loot. Otherwise, it will notify the Player that a container is required.

In this case, Hecate has prepared 1200 Empty Bottles.

Empty Bottles are cheap but lightweight containers that can store most liquids in the game, and weigh no more than 5% of the total weight limit that the Player can carry.

Hecate doesn't need any bag because Game Inventory is her bag!

Hecate no longer paid attention to the system logs because she was busy collecting loot.

There were a few maggots and spiders that survived the onslaught, but Hecate used Wind Slash and Wind Barrage to finish them off. Her MP bar kept changing, decreasing a little but reaching its maximum again the next moment.

When Hecate casts a spell, her MP definitely decreases, but when her spell kills an enemy, her MP increases again even though she is still affected by the debuff as a consequence of using Mana Explosion some time ago.

This is because Hecate has the passive skill Soul Drain which restores her MP every time she kills an enemy with a spell.

Suddenly, a spider dared to attack from behind while Hecate was casting the spell. However, with her Acrobatic skills, Hecate flexibly did a backflip to avoid the attack. Her spell casting was not disturbed at all because she had the passive skill Free Cast.

And so, she used the Wind Slash she had just cast to split the spider's ass in two.

SPLAT!

-12300!

Another soul has turned into Exp, and absorbed inside Hecate as her MP.

Done with the area, she casts Mystical Amplification again and slaughtered the filth that infested the next room with Cyclonic Storm. It did not take long time for her to annihilate all of the enemy in the first floor of the ruins. The chunk of meat also been cleaned from the wall and ceiling, making the ruins look nicer.

Although, those filthy things will return like normal in a day. Similar as the World Boss, Sharknath that will respawn again in a month in a random place. Any crater and battle marks will also restored somehow, although the marks would not completely disappear.

The crater that Hecate created most likely will restored as a lake by the AI.

At this time, Hecate had exhausted all of 24 Cyclonic Storm as well as 100 Wind Slash and 50 Wind Barrage.

However, her kill count merely reached 672 kills and only 67 karma point restored. It was still half the way for reaching 1400 kills to wash off all the blood from her name.

But Hecate wasn't worried at all. She waved her hand and changed her equipment again.

The green glowing rings on all her fingers had now changed into blue glowing rings.

"Heh, time for the second round."

Hecate couldn't help but grin while she climbed down the stairs and headed into the B1F floor.