An anti-villain one-shot story. Spoiler: Content It was sudden but the Heroes currently in that moment wavered. They did not completely understand the reason, but they knew he was the cause of their confusion and immobilization. Surrounding a lonesome figure at the base of the earth’s bowel. He was clothed in a hooded robe and had an appearance of a wandering hermit. Holding an ivory staff in his right hand and in his left hand was an apple. The apple fairly carried an ample weight on his palm, but the faint magical radiance made known it was no ordinary item. The primary reason why every Hero, the summoned players of Lunar Legacy were circling him was due to the item in his possession. “Oi! Release the Serpent’s Wisdom! You damned thief!” One of the Heroes from afar within the ranks threatened him. “Yeah! Like what he said, it should belong rightfully to Cherubim Sonata that cleared this dungeon!” Another supported the claim, because all the Heroes here were part of one of the guild’s leading Brave Faction’s expedition force, the Guilds’ Cherubim Sonata. “A thief like you, a novice at that! Dares to steal our guild’s quota?” “Kill him! Take away his items!” “Let’s drop him! We can enjoy leveling down this mere low level.” Everyone else finally started to regain momentum as the discussion heated itself to a murderous atmosphere. Clearly, the Heroes of Cherubim Sonata were enraged having their day’s quota, the Serpent’s Wisdom being stolen by some low level player. Still, the lonesome player did not respond to their provocation or cruel remarks once their done with player killing him. “No answer, huh?” Having enough in waiting for a reaction from this mysterious thief, and besides clearly being low level due to some of the Heroes being able to use their identification Skills like Peer, Observe II, Identify III, or Peek II which all had the ability to see through a player’s status in various layers. It showed that he was only a Level 1 player, yet somehow he was able to steal a march from them. This was the secondary reason why they wavered, because it was against the norm in this virtual world for a low level player like him to pass unguarded and steal their loot. He most likely had to be a new class of some unique skills capable of high stealth for being able to do stunt like this. “Then, die! You lowly level 1!” They began their attack immediately! There was nothing but contempt and malice in their actions! Their hearts all craving to make him suffer slowly for ruining their day. Cherubim Sonata’s Heroes assumed that was all their was to this mysterious thief. Knowing their was likely nothing to fear other than his stealth skills, they activated their control skills with condition and magical damage in attempt to slow him down or safely kill on the spot. It was expected from high level players within one of the leading Guild’s Brave Faction. “Burn him to crisp — Fire Pillars!” Pillars of fire rose from the burning earth and formed a cage around him. The heat was enough to melt the everything around it. The soil crystallized to fine sand and the air turning heavy and heard to breathe in. Still, he did not react even when bearing the full brunt of this fiery cage. “Chain him to slavery — Burden Ropes!” Again, another painful skill was forced on him. Out of nowhere, steel-woven tight ropes appeared and locked onto his body. Tightening every inch of flesh. The sound of muscles breaking and with the steel ropes gradually increasing the weight on him alongside the steel ropes heating up from the fiery cage. It was an agonizing moment for any sane person, and it would not be a surprised if he had let go of the Serpent’s Wisdom or screamed for mercy. But he continued to remain silent and simply shifted the direction of his chained ivory staff towards a block of Heroes that were circling him. He muttered in boredom the chain-skill chant of terrible power. “O foolish is the happiest man in this world.” The Heroes felt a chill in their backs! All they knew something ominous was happening and the source was the immobilized player. “His happiness is his delusion yet it shall remain a paradise in his world.” He chanted in succession without pause or bravado. His chant echoed in the minds of every player within his area. Again, the Cherubim Sonata’s Heroes felt that sudden pressure to their bodies! Frantic, they quickly sent their strongest tanks and fastest assassin class Heroes on him in fear they were too late. “His world is bliss and his bliss is eternal.” And indeed, they were too late. The vanguards closing on him were slowing down in an abnormal pace. It was as if they were wearing heavy weights all of a sudden. Including the faster Heroes already within his distance, and aiming for his vitals, they too stopped and went down to their knees to the ground. Panting. Exhausting. Dehydrated. Starving. Dizzy. Not just the vanguards but the rearguards with the Heroes preparing long distance skills for offense and support were also in a similar condition. They were all greatly weary, and what was worse was that some of them noticed their levels… were draining in a rapid rate! Levels were the absolute core of every player’s overall power in Lunar Legacy. Even if they had overpowering items or skills, and without the appropriate level, they were just glass cannons. Worse than level 1 players or unbalanced players. With their levels going down in a rush, they also realize that their items’s durability were also draining like their levels! Absolute fear! They felt that their world was turning to something they could not understand. It was an impossible feat for anyone or anything in this virtual world. Nothing could render the Heroes’s natural abilities and advantages to zero, unless he was the Administrator, but clearly he wasn’t! Though most of them went into hysteria from the sudden drainage of power, the rest continued to attack the cause of these strange phenomena. Hoping to stop this madness if they eliminated him. “O envy him for he envies no one in this world!” But such hope was mercilessly crushed to no avail in their desperate situation. The final chain-skill chant had been finally released upon them. And not just them, but everything around them within a certain distance of effect only he knew. “… what—” The world trembled in trepidation. A burst of magical energy exploded from the firmaments as it rained down on the everything on the ground. The pressure was unbearable and majority of the Heroes fainted from the downpour above. Ominous colors of magic were all transformed to tainted swirls of negativity and eventually deep obsidian-gray. “Grand Magic — Gravity Burst.” An aurora of darkness instantly filled the horizon. A mountainous range of despair crushed everything from the ground up towards the firmament. The skies cracked slightly in a buzz. The sound of air closing in and exploding ringed about everywhere. The earth levitated to the air and compressed to dust. The bodies of Cherubim Sonata’s Heroes were also compressed in the process of the area’s total destruction. Everything swirled in a vortex of dark matter as sparks of dark energy centralized above him. It shaped a micro black hole into a temporal existence. The bending of matter and energy above the caster was the result of Gravity Burst. An anti-territory skill capable of harming information bodies of both physical and spiritual types, but at the cost of the caster’s total magic points. Eventually the micro black hole would disappear in the form of magical equations after devouring everything around it except the caster. Every bit of information in that particular location in the virtual world was recording only negative imaginary values. It was natural, because he activated such a grand Skill using all his magic points, but such devastation was impossible without the help of his EX Talent. His EX Talent enabled him to delay time and finish the activation trigger for the Gravity Burst. All Heroes were summoned to this virtual world with each possessing a Talent. These Talents were the core skill of their soul. It would take in many forms or shapes, and the abilities would differ from one another. Talents would affect their skills, items, and eventually perhaps those around them depending on what Talent they acquired. His Talent was ranked EX and it was a double-edged ability. The EX Talent — Zeroth Degradation. The ability to degrade information bodies or temporary degrade any entity or object’s information within a certain contact or range. This meant that attributes, durability, skill power or range, and perhaps event concepts would be degraded to their lowest state or nothing at all. A wicked talent to enfeeble the strong, further weaken the weak, or erase the perishable by a touch on their information bodies’ instability. Of course, this included his own level, stats, skills, and items. Such a condition burden on him, but it was fair, he believed. A terrible power with a terrible price. He valued weakness over strength. He was a twisted individual summoned as a player in this virtual world. Lunar Legacy was once a enjoyable role-playing game around the world, but now it became a death game for the summoned players as Heroes. Toss in a science-magic fusion world of war, the players have to choose between leveling up to Brave or Overlord! Heroes were their default faction, but some preferred the Overlord Faction, because of self gain, or perhaps other reasons not privy to the public. He too joined the Overlord Faction, because he… had already done this over 9,012,617 times. He was the Overlord candidate who hated his infamous Lunar Legacy title Eternal One, because having the EX Talent — Zeroth Degradation made him incapable of gaining experience points, and thus left him a level 1 forever. Though to him, there was another hidden reason why he hated this Lunar Legacy title Eternal One. It was because he knew everyone back on Earth would die should the players in Lunar Legacy escape from this virtual world. Repeating failed attempts in saving those he cared or himself, he still foolishly sought to protect mankind from the Heroes. He who knew eternity like a shadow, and was forced to destroy both worlds over and over in despair, the former reincarnated Overlord Eternal One — Hero Zero.