The pkers didn't just see Liam as a player; they saw a killer. In the old world, Liam Yoo was a privileged kid who cooked in the dark. Here, he had just erased a man with a casual shove.
The weight pressed into the plaza. Silence clung, dense with blood and chicken soup.
[System Notification: You have forcibly recruited 'Subordinates' through overwhelming Presence!]
[Goddess Hestia is watching... She mourns the fallen, but her eyes remain on your flame.]
"Liam," Ellie whispered, her voice trembling as she looked at the rubble where the Augustavo captain had been. "He's... his icon went grey. He's not coming back."
Liam didn't look up from his pot. His large hands were steady, though his red eyes were dark. "I know. The system didn't just sync our looks, Ellie. It synced our souls. If you break a soul here, there's no backup server."
He glanced at the NPC stall owner, whose potatoes had spilled. The old man, pale and trembling, was just a 'Quest Giver' or 'Merchant' to other players. To Liam, he was a man whose livelihood had just been trampled.
Liam stood up, walked over, and began picking up the dirt-covered potatoes himself.
"I'm sorry about the mess," Liam said to the NPC. His voice was deep, lacking the arrogance of the other players. "I'll pay for what was bruised."
The old man blinked, tears actually forming in his coded eyes. "You... you speak to us? Most of the 'players' just shout or steal..."
Before Liam could answer, the sky changed.
The golden "Event" fireworks from earlier didn't just fade—they turned a sickly, bruised purple. The air grew cold, not like winter, but like a morgue.
[World Message: The Creators are bored.]
[Message: 'The starting zones are too crowded. The weak must be culled to make room for the strong.']
A massive digital eye opened in the clouds, peering at the town with contempt. This wasn't a "game developer" update; these were the Gods, bored of watching people cry.
[Event: The Exodus of the Weak.]
[Condition: A Level 25 'Lava Golem' has been spawned in the Plaza.]
[Note: NPCs are not exempt from the culling. Clear the zone or be deleted.]
The ground groaned. Right in the centre of the market, the cobblestones exploded upward as a massive, monstrous, half-demon ripped its way out of the earth. completely on fire, and more flames on its rocky arms, its eyes were voids of pure malice.
It didn't go for the players first. It turned its massive head toward the old potato merchant.
"Run," Ellie screamed, grabbing her staff. "Liam, it's a Level 25! The Gods spawned it specifically to wipe out the NPCs and the low-levels! We have to leave the town!"
Players trampled each other for the gates, ignoring NPCs and the "people" of this world. To them, the old man was just an asset doomed for deletion.
But Liam stood his ground.
He looked up at the giant Eye in the sky—the Gods who thought they could just "cull" his kitchen.
"You think this is a game?" Liam's voice didn't just carry; it boomed, vibrating in the chests of everyone left in the plaza.
The ground didn't just crack; it began to liquify.
From the centre of the plaza, a Level 25 Lava Golem rose, a towering mass of obsidian and living magma. Every step it took turned the cobblestones into slag. The heat was so intense that players fifty yards away saw their HP bars ticking down from "Environmental Burn" damage.
"I don't want to die!" a player screamed, fleeing toward the gate.
another player screaming and crying, "I don't want to die a virgin!"
"Liam, move!" Ellie screamed, her pink tail vibrating in terror. "You don't have a weapon that can cut stone! You only have soup, you idiot!"
Liam stood his ground, his 6'6" frame dwarfed by the molten titan. He wasn't reaching for a sword. He was reaching into his inventory and pulling out... a bunch of small bottles of purple rabbit toad poison and a bottle of carbonated water.
"Not now, Ellie," Liam muttered, his brow furrowed in deep concentration. "I'm trying to remember if the recipe calls for two shakes or three. If I mess up the fizz-to-poison-resistance ratio, I'm going to have a very bad afternoon."
"YOU'RE MAKING SODA?!"
The Golem, tired of being ignored by a man holding poison, let out a roar of pressurised steam and slammed its molten fist down.
CLANG
The deafening blow hit Liam like a falling meteor, shattering tavern windows. Thanks to 50,000% Melee Resistance—
Liam didn't bend his knees. He just stood, using the Golem's red-hot fist as a countertop.
"Perfect," Liam grumbled, casually mashing the purple liquid against the Golem's glowing knuckles. "The surface temperature of your hand is exactly what I need for a quick reduction."
The Golem froze. It tried to lift its arm. It couldn't. It was like its fist had been welded to a mountain. It began to thrash, hitting Liam with its other fist, kicking him, even trying to breathe fire on him.
Liam just stood there, swaying slightly with each mountain-shattering blow, his hands never stopping their work.
"A bit more carbonation..." he whispered, pouring the water over the Golem's glowing thumb.
[System Notification: You are using a 'Field Boss' as a Kitchen Tool.]
[The Gods are watching in stunned silence.]
[Goddess Hestia has covered her face in embarrassment.]
"There." Liam capped the bottle and shook it, holding up the [Grape Soda]. "Recipe complete."
"Liam! The Golem is literally melting the ground under your feet!" Ellie yelled.
Liam saw he was ankle-deep in molten slag. The Golem, exhausted after forty-seven hits, sagged, its Stamina bar nearly empty. Liam's HP hadn't moved.
"You're done?" Liam asked, his voice a low, husky rumble. "Good. Because you're overcooking the soda."
Liam didn't punch the Golem. He didn't have the strength stats for a "One-Punch" kill yet. Instead, he did something much more dumb.
He opened his menu and looked at his [Absorption] skill.
"If I can eat parts of monsters to get recipes," Liam mused, looking at the Golem's glowing, obsidian heart, "does that count if the monster is still technically alive?"
He stepped forward, his feet hissing in the molten stone, and reached his large, scarred hand into the Golem's chest cavity.
[Warning: Environmental Heat is 1,200°C!]
[User Resistance: 50,000%.]
[Result: 'Feels like a warm bath.']
Liam's hand closed around the pulsing, white-hot core.
"Hey, Ellie," Liam called back over his shoulder, his red eyes reflecting the magma. "Do you think 'Lava Cake' is supposed to be crunchy or chewy?"
In the sky, the giant purple Eye narrowed. The "Gods" realised they hadn't sent a culling. They had accidentally delivered a Fresh Ingredient.
[System Notification: Extreme Absorption Initiated!]
[Warning: You are attempting to 'Eat' a Field Boss while it is still 90% functional!]
Liam gripped the core and pulled.
"Let's find out," he growled.
Crrr-ack
The sound wasn't just the Golem's chest cavity tearing open; it was the final, tragic death rattle of Liam's "Little Liam" gear.
The heavy armour, designed for a child-sized avatar, had been screaming for mercy since the growth spurt began. Now, as his back muscles flexed with the force of a thousand tons, the iron armour didn't just snap—it.
detonated.
The chest plate, now the size of a postage stamp on his massive chest, flew off like a projectile. The leather greaves on his shins gave up.
Leaving his feet bare on the liquid stone. All that remained were a few tattered, strained leather straps clinging to his massive frame, looking more like a high-fashion disaster than protective gear.
[System Warning: Durability of 'Starter iron Set' has reached -5,000%.]
[Note: Equipment size mismatch is causing a 'Presence' debuff to onlookers.]
[Goddess Hestia has logged off to scream into a pillow.]
Liam didn't even notice. He stood there, a barefoot titan in the middle of a melting town, holding a pulsing, white-hot elemental heart that was still screaming with the power of a volcano.
Steam hissed off his bare, scarred skin as he looked back at the terrified, bright-red Ellie, then back at the giant Eye in the sky
And then, before the Gods or the Golem could protest, he took a massive, crunching bite out of the living magma core.
[ALERT: CALAMITY-GRADE INGREDIENT CONSUMED!]
[10,000x BUFF ACTIVATED...]
"Gods" could only watch from the sky as their "Culling" was devoured by a man in a shredded toddler's outfit.
The moment the Magma Core hit Liam's stomach, the 10,000x multiplier collided with the raw elemental energy of a World Boss. The result wasn't just power—it was an Information Overload. A pillar of white, incandescent light erupted from Liam, shooting straight up into the clouds and slamming into the giant Purple Eye in the sky.
It was a literal divine flashbang.
The "Gods" watching the feed were blasted back. The sheer "Data Density" of Liam's buff was so high it fried the sensory logs of the High Heavens.
In the sky, the giant Eye flickered, turned to static, and then blinked.
[System Error: Event Log Corrupted.]
[Reason: Unexpected Solar Flare / Graphical Glitch.]
[Status: The 'Culling' has concluded. Result: Unknown.]