Martial Era: Starting With The Strongest Talent-Chapter 50: Who The Hell Is He?

There was a reason Adam was so focused on Essence Online.

Most would argue it made more sense to sweep through the rifts surrounding Sector 418. After all, these level-3 rifts were manageable, profitable, and efficient.

But Adam wasn’t short-sighted enough to confuse activity with progress.

Those rifts would only give him money.

Nothing more.

Despite being level-3, they were still Unranked rifts, which meant the highest-grade special talent they could ever produce was F-grade.

Adam already had Poison F, and even that was pushing the upper limit of what those rifts could offer.

As for the others?

He’d read their descriptions.

They weren’t enticing, not even close.

Giving up Poison F for any of them would be a downgrade, and his second special talent, Rapid E, was in an entirely different league.

No F-rank talent from those rifts could compare. From a growth perspective, the choice was obvious.

There was also the matter of money.

Adam wasn’t the smartest person, but he was far from an idiot. He firmly believed that you could never go wrong with having too much money.

But belief didn’t mean blindness. He knew where his priorities lay, and right now, currency wasn’t the bottleneck holding him back.

Progress was.

The Mission Hall had already provided him with optimized hunting locations, information handed to him on a silver platter.

Ignoring it outright would be foolish. Adam wasn’t arrogant enough to do that.

But blindly following it?

That was just as bad.

What he wanted was understanding.

By hunting Sirens in Essence Online, he was developing his own sense of their habitats, their patterns, their behavior. Even if that knowledge was incomplete, even if it was imperfect, it would stack with the Mission Hall’s data. Augment it. Sharpen it.

That was how he planned to extract the highest possible benefit from the incursion exploration.

As he walked toward the arcade, a thought surfaced.

The only real regret...is that it’s not real monsters that are dying.

Adam let out a quiet sigh.

But sacrifices need to be made for the highest benefit.

The thought settled, unchallenged.

Moments later, he reached the arcade.

The doors slid open, lights spilling out as Adam stepped inside, already setting his mind back to the game.

The moment the arcade attendant saw Adam walk back in, his heart nearly leapt out of his chest.

What is he doing here again?

After last night, the man hadn’t expected to see Adam so soon. What kind of martial artist, especially one this young, had this much free time? Most would be diving headfirst into rifts, grinding for resources or chasing merit.

Shouldn’t he be in a rift somewhere?

Adam approached the counter with an easy smile.

"I enjoyed the game yesterday," he said casually. "So I’d like fifteen hours."

The color visibly drained from the attendant’s face.

Fifteen.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. There was nothing he could do.

It looked like he’d be staying late today.

Adam noticed the expression and smiled a little wider as he paid the amount. Without lingering, he turned and headed toward the pod area.

The arcade was noticeably emptier than the day before. Most people were either at work or in school. Rows of machines sat unused, lights dim, the usual noise reduced to a low hum.

Adam didn’t mind.

He entered the pod room, selected one of the empty pods, and lay down. The hatch closed smoothly, sealing him inside.

Then...

His consciousness accelerated.

That familiar sensation returned, like being pulled forward at the speed of light, reality stretching and blurring. This time, Adam was ready for it.

As he entered his personal space, he navigated the interface with practiced ease and selected his game.

The world shifted.

A notification appeared before his eyes.

[Welcome back, PtsDaddy, to Essence Online.]

****

The Essence Online forums exploded again.

For two straight days, Adam did nothing but run the Siren map in Solo Hunt. The moment he logged back in, he didn’t hesitate.

Five hundred points vanished as he purchased a dirty bronze conduit, a common knife.

The point deduction didn’t affect his ranking.

It still read 1992 with 1021 points.

Only his spendable points had dropped.

And that was enough.

With a proper conduit in hand, the entire script changed.

If Adam had been a butcher yesterday, today he was the god of death.

The knife boosted him in ways bare hands never could. Power flowed cleaner. Strikes landed truer. Sirens fell one after another, their resistance crumbling instantly. The swamp became his domain.

But that wasn’t the most terrifying part.

The more he hunted, the more he adapted.

It was instinctive, almost frightening. Adam began to feel where the next large cluster of Sirens would appear. Before the water even stirred, he was already moving. His efficiency climbed with every hour.

Elite Sirens started appearing more frequently.

Their Lullaby F, a tier above the mob units’ Lullaby G, washed over him uselessly. Wide, black, beady eyes stared at him in disbelief each time, right before Adam killed them. Clean cuts. Precise strikes.

They exploded into motes of light all the same.

And his ranking?

It climbed.

1992

1890

1780

Then...

1781

Some pumped-up player had surged ahead, clearly trying to outshine the rising streak. For a brief moment, Adam was pushed down.

But the challenger had no idea what they’d just invited.

When the rankings updated again,

Adam was ranked at position 1490 of the solo hunt rankings.

The forums went silent for half a second.

Then chaos.

In just two days, a player had blasted out of the top 2000s and secured a spot in the top 1500s of the game, Solo Hunt.

This was unheard of.

Threads multiplied. Speculation ran rampant. Accusations, awe, envy, all of it flooding in faster than moderators could respond.

Soon, only one question remained, spammed endlessly across the forums:

Who the hell is PtsDaddy?

****

White motes of light drifted lazily into the air, the sign of recently slain Sirens, as Adam stared at the ranking hovering before him.

[Solo Hunt Ranking]

-1490- PtsDaddy — 3121 pts

-1491- *****

-1492- *****

-1493- *****

Adam felt a quiet satisfaction settle in.

The ranking was good, better than he’d initially expected, but that wasn’t what truly pleased him. What mattered more was the knowledge he’d gained over the past two days. Siren movement patterns. Habitat preferences. Trigger zones. Aggression thresholds.

All of it.

When he layered that knowledge on top of the information the Mission Hall had already given him, tomorrow was shaping up to be a huge harvest.

And Adam hadn’t forgotten why he was here in the first place.

Natural resources.

The Sirens’ Swamp incursion was rich in one thing above all else, Soul Pearls. With enough of them, Adam was confident he could increase his soul slot capacity.

One more slot meant one more equipped talent.

That single addition would change everything.

Satisfied, Adam decided to log out. He checked the timer, only seven minutes left. Unlike yesterday, he hadn’t paid for extended hours.

As the logout prompt appeared, a memory surfaced.

The look on the arcade attendant’s face earlier that day, the visible relief when Adam told him he wasn’t staying long.

Adam chuckled softly.

The thought lingered with him as the world dissolved, his body breaking into particles of light.

The swamp vanished.

And Adam logged out, already planning what tomorrow would bring.