GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 28: []Mutation of Perception, The Mist Zone’s Veil

Chapter 28: [28]Mutation of Perception, The Mist Zone’s Veil

The transition from the ruined and molten twelfth floor to the fourteenth floor of the Chronos Spire was drastic.

It felt like stepping out of a blazing furnace and directly into a sensory deprivation tank!

Vahn Ryker materialized alongside his team. His boots touched down softly on damp and spongy moss.

Instantly, a thick and oppressive gray fog swallowed them whole.

It was not just normal weather. The mist was a localized environmental hazard designed to completely nullify player perception.

It muted sound, drained the vibrant colors from the world, and reduced visibility to an absolute maximum of three feet!

"Stay close," Vahn ordered.

His voice no longer held the cold and robotic drone he used in the lower levels. There was a relaxed and confident cadence to his tone now.

He sounded like a man who was beginning to genuinely enjoy the absolute chaos of the Spire.

Sia Vance instantly stepped in front of him. She raised her massive obsidian kite shield in a defensive slant.

The dark metal hummed with residual heat from the dragon forge, providing the only source of light in the suffocating gray void.

"Commander, my visual range is severely compromised," she reported while her silver eyes darted frantically side to side. "I cannot establish a proper aggro perimeter if I cannot see the enemy vectors."

"It is a blind zone," Aria whispered.

She stepped incredibly close to Vahn. Her fingers lightly gripped the sleeve of his cheap academy jacket.

The movement was entirely unconscious and driven by the sheer creepiness of the environment. But the sweet scent of cherry blossoms immediately cut through the damp smell of the fog.

Vahn glanced down at her hand. A faint and amused smile touched the corner of his lips.

"Careful, Priestess. If you hold on any tighter, people might start thinking we are actually dating. That would severely damage my reputation as a lone and brooding Architect."

Aria’s face flushed a brilliant shade of crimson!

She yanked her hand back as if his jacket was woven from live electrical wires. Her emerald eyes widened.

"I... what?! I am simply maintaining tactical proximity!"

"As the healer, I must remain within a two meter radius of the vanguard! Do not flatter yourself, Vahn!"

Hana giggled from behind them. She was entirely unbothered by the terrifying environment thanks to the absolute protection of her Sun Silk Aegis.

"Oh, please. You were practically trying to crawl into his pocket, Sister in Law. Just admit you like the aesthetic."

Before Aria could launch into another flustered defense, the mist rippled.

There was no sound, no battle cry, and no crunch of footsteps on the moss. The attack simply materialized out of the ether.

A massive and translucent scythe blade formed of condensed wind sheared through the fog. It aimed directly for Aria’s neck!

Vahn did not even blink.

His fifty base Agility allowed him to perceive the sudden shift in the air pressure a fraction of a second before the blade struck.

He reached out and casually grabbed the collar of Aria’s Crimson Lotus Vestments.

He pulled her backward.

The wind scythe cleanly missed her throat by less than a millimeter. It dissipated harmlessly against Sia’s raised shield.

"Wraiths," Vahn noted calmly. He analyzed the lingering data particles of the attack.

"They are entirely integrated into the environmental rendering engine. They do not exist until the exact moment they strike."

"Commander! Left flank!" Sia shouted.

Three more wind scythes erupted from the mist simultaneously!

Sia managed to block two of them with a masterful sweeping arc of her shield. The kinetic redirection matrix absorbed the blows with a heavy metallic clang.

But the third scythe bypassed her guard entirely. It tore through the fog and aimed squarely at Hana!

Vahn moved.

He did not use a skill. He just stepped into the attack’s path and allowed the blade to strike his chest.

The [Calamity Curse] branded into his skin pulsed darkly. But his base fire immunity and raw level advantage shattered the wind blade on impact.

He did not take damage, but his eyes narrowed.

His smile vanished and was replaced by the terrifying focus of the System Administrator.

Agility was no longer enough. He could dodge anything the game threw at him, and his durability was currently holding. But he could not physically be in three places at once.

If he could not predict the exact trajectory of the invisible attacks, his sister or his healer would eventually take a hit.

That was a statistical probability he refused to allow.

"Hold the line," Vahn commanded softly and closed his eyes.

He did not draw the Soul Bound Shadow Blade. Instead, he accessed the deep hidden architecture of his neural link.

The blue holographic interface of the [EXP Converter] flared to life in the darkness of his mind.

He had thirty million experience points sitting in his reservoir from draining the Labyrinth Golem.

It was time to permanently upgrade his hardware.

’System,’ Vahn dictated mentally. His authority overrode the basic game constraints.

’Target: Base Perception Stat. Initiate forced evolutionary mutation. Dump one hundred million experience points into ocular data processing.’

[System Warning]

↳ User’s physical infrastructure lacks the requisite foundational stats for a Tier 4 sensory mutation. Proceeding will cause extreme neural strain.

’I dictate the strain. Execute,’ Vahn replied.

[Conversion Interface Opened]

↳ 100,000,000 EXP Consumed.

[Perception Stat has reached absolute maximum threshold!]

[Base skill ’Chronos-Sight" has violently mutated into ’Verdant Chronos Sight’ (Mythic)!]

Vahn’s eyes snapped open!

The world did not just change. It fundamentally broke down and rebuilt itself before his very eyes!

His deep purple irises were instantly overlaid with a brilliant glowing pattern of azure and emerald circuit lines.

The oppressive gray mist did not vanish, but it ceased to be an obstacle.

To Vahn, the fog was now rendered as a flowing river of binary code.

He could see the exact flow of mana and the geometric wireframes of the trees. Most importantly, he could see the localized probability engines calculating the enemy’s next move.

He was not just seeing the present. He was actively reading the system’s rendering queue.

He could see exactly three seconds into the future!

"Sia, angle your shield forty five degrees upward," Vahn stated calmly.

His glowing eyes tracked a sequence of code that had not even formed into an attack yet.

Sia did not question him. She immediately raised her shield.

Exactly three seconds later, a massive Wraith materialized from above and crashed its scythe directly into the reinforced obsidian.

"Aria, cast a localized binding spell two meters to your right," Vahn continued. His hands were still casually resting in his pockets.