Chapter 75: The Void’s Treasury

The absolute silence inside the subterranean vault was heavy, thick with the smell of vaporized gold and the overwhelming, suffocating density of thousands of hoarded monster cores.

Ren knelt perfectly dead center in the massive, multi-colored ocean of evolutionary energy. The heavy, matte-black ballistic canvas of his ruined trench coat spread out over the glowing crystals. His pitch-black, tungsten-sheened Iron Skin absorbed the chaotic, neon light of the room, rendering him as a complete, terrifying void amidst a sea of priceless stars.

He didn’t pick up a single core.

The Old World elite had spent billions of dollars and countless human lives extracting this localized harvest, carefully stacking the jagged rubies, smooth emeralds, and glowing sapphires of the apocalyptic ecosystem into a neat, secure pile. The massive mountain of mana had no idea there would be a surprise.

Upon sensing Ren kneeling around with no expression, the concentrated ambient energy was suddenly worried whether this dark, unmoving silhouette would be able to meet digestive expectations. The consumption required the predator to eat the cores individually in the spur of the moment and had a high degree of difficulty. Within a second, the lesser being had to process the violent stat assimilation without their vascular system exploding; this was a real test of a survivor’s biological limits.

Unfortunately for the hoarded treasury, Ren’s Level 32 Gluttony skill completely ignored the rules of baseline human consumption. It was not until he opened his jaws that the localized energy could finally feel his perfectly anchored, infinite capacity.

Ren laughed gently, a low, resonant vibration that physically shook the reinforced concrete walls, and responded with a cheeky telepathic intent to the room itself, “Must you sit here gathering dust every time I make a move in this city?”

“Can’t you tell? I’m just looking for an excuse to completely liquidate you…” Ren thought.

“Come, let’s get started…” Ren hissed, his completely solid violet eyes burning with absolute, uncontested dominance.

Ren nodded, then…

…while Chloe was gathered in the hallway waiting to watch him embarrass himself… in a split second, he entered into a completely different state of mind. They watched as he naturally spread his massive, heavily armored arms apart, wrapped his localized gravity around the entire room, and gently spread apart his jaws. As the massive, roaring biological furnace in his chest activated, in an instant, everyone was stunned by the look in his eyes—it was so threatening… compared to the methodical consumer he had been earlier on, it was like he had turned into a completely different localized black hole!

What impressed everyone the most was the pitch-black, iridescent obsidian plating of his Chitin Shell, which appeared to be supplying him with this wild energy—he and the apocalypse went perfectly together, like they had completely fused into one.

[Skill Activated: Gluttony (Maximum Output)]

The physical manifestation of his hunger was catastrophic.

Ren didn’t eat the cores; he inhaled the entire vault. A massive, localized gravitational vortex erupted from his chest. The tens of thousands of jagged, high-tier monster cores violently levitated off the concrete floor, swirling into a blinding, chaotic tornado of multi-colored light.

The heavy crystals didn’t even reach his mouth. As the vortex of cores spun closer to his Level 32 frame, the sheer, crushing pressure of his Aura of the Apex pulverized them into pure, glowing dust.

A continuous, blinding river of raw, unadulterated mana poured directly into Ren’s vascular system.

The physical sensation was a localized supernova.

[Consumed: High-Tier Urban Cores x 4,215] [Warning: Unprecedented Energy Influx. Biological Meltdown Imminent.]

Ren completely ignored the System’s terrified red text flashing across his retinas. He forced his hyper-calcified muscle fibers to endure the catastrophic, white-hot pressure. The thick, glowing cobalt veins on his neck and chest expanded to their absolute limits, throbbing with the sheer, impossible volume of an entire city’s hoarded wealth.

[Strength +45] [Vitality +40] [Agility +35] [Intelligence +20] [Perception +25]

The system notifications became a blur of cascading blue light.

[Level Up!] [You are now Level 33.] [Level Up!] [You are now Level 35.] [Level Up!] [You are now Level 38.]

Chloe was physically pinned against the rusted remains of the forty-ton titanium door by the sheer atmospheric suction of the mana vortex. She threw her arms over her face, the grainy green hue of her night-vision goggles entirely whited out by the blinding, localized sun burning in the center of the vault.

This level of gluttony was comparable to that of an international super-singularity.

[Level Up!] [You are now Level 40.] [Milestone Threshold Reached.] [Initiating Tier-3 Physiological Overhaul.]

The vortex abruptly snapped shut.

The blinding light instantly vanished, plunging the massive concrete vault into absolute, suffocating darkness. The deafening roar of the swirling crystals was replaced by the soft, settling hiss of millions of microscopic grains of grey, lifeless ash coating the floor.

The vault was entirely empty. The Old World billionaires’ hoard was completely, permanently gone.

In the dead center of the ash-covered room stood Ren.

He did not fall to his knees this time. His body had completely adapted to the violent transitions of evolutionary milestones. The Tier-3 overhaul did not expand his frame; it condensed it.

His massive, two-hundred-and-seventy-pound weight compressed, packing the impossible density of Level 40 stats into a slightly leaner, hyper-streamlined silhouette. The jagged, overlapping obsidian plates of his Chitin Shell retracted slightly, fusing perfectly flush with his pitch-black, tungsten-sheened skin, creating an absolutely seamless, frictionless biological armor.

The glowing cobalt veins that had marked his previous ascensions entirely disappeared. The massive biological furnace in his chest no longer bled excess energy or heat. It operated with 100% absolute, perfect efficiency. He radiated zero thermal signature. He projected zero ambient mana.

He was a complete, perfect void.

[Species Classification Updated: Abyssal Sovereign (Mature)] [Passive Upgraded: Aura of the Void] [Description: The user actively consumes all ambient mana within a hundred-yard radius, creating a localized dead-zone that slowly suffocates biological entities reliant on System energy.]

Ren slowly rolled his broad shoulders. There was no metallic rasp of grinding bone plates. He moved in absolute, terrifying, frictionless silence.

He turned his head toward the ruined doorway. His completely solid violet eyes no longer burned; they were deep, infinite pools of dark, crushing gravity.

“The localized assets have been entirely liquidated,” Ren stated.

His voice had lost the deep, vibrating rumble of a beast. It was perfectly smooth, incredibly clear, and carried the quiet, undeniable finality of an executioner. He stepped forward, his heavy combat boots making absolutely zero sound on the ash-covered concrete.

Chloe lowered her arms, her chest heaving as she stared at the dark, perfect monolith walking toward her. He didn’t look like a monster anymore. He looked like something that had evolved completely past the need for monstrous traits.

“What do we do now?” Chloe whispered, her voice trembling in the perfectly silent, dead air of the vault.

Ren stopped beside her, his solid violet eyes looking past the ruined lobby, up toward the towering, overgrown skyscrapers of the financial district waiting above them.

“The hoard merely elevated my baseline,” Ren stated, stepping smoothly over the ruined forty-ton titanium slab. “The true harvest is still hiding in the canopy. We are going to the surface, and we are going to clear the urban grid.”

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