Let's Be Friends

"How is this possible!"

"Impossible! I'm an admin!"

"Damn it! Why does it hurt so much? I swear I'll find a way to kill you!" The obese man's body twisted and melted before Ye Chuan's eyes, leaving behind only a pile of equipment and spirit fragments.

Ye Chuan glanced at the gleaming golden gear on the ground and flicked his fingers, summoning the items into his hands.

"Hmm?"

"Interesting."

Each piece of +31 gear had decent stats—

But the problem was, these were game-exclusive items, granting abilities like enhanced shield bashes or immunity to certain types of damage.

In short, completely useless to Ye Chuan.

"Tch, all trash." If it wasn’t usable, it was garbage.

Just as he was about to toss them aside, he remembered the point-exchange shop’s recycling system. He tried feeding the items into it—and each piece was worth thousands of points!

"Oh?"

Ye Chuan was surprised by how much these useless items were worth. If that was the case, he could live with it.

"Not bad. Though these spirit fragments are worse than the ones from those Judgment Enforcers earlier."

……

Meanwhile, on the other side, the admin respawned at the town’s revival point.

He immediately logged out and contacted the other admins.

"What do you mean you lost even after gifting yourself gear? Is that boss really that broken?" Admin A had already heard about Admin B’s death—and how all his freshly equipped gear had been dropped and lost.

"It’s insane. Even immunity necklaces couldn’t block the debuffs. Can’t we just delete it? I’m done dealing with this." Admin B’s face twisted in disgust as he recalled the pain.

"Deleting it might mess with [The Last Sword]’s core mechanics. The whole game’s systems are interconnected." After some discussion, the admins decided to consult the developers.

Soon, they got their answer.

Admin A spoke up, "Got it. The devs say we can straight-up delete the Nask Great Catacombs dungeon."

"Do it, then. Just throw the players some measly compensation and call it a day."

"Disgraceful." Admin B was still seething over being humiliated by Ye Chuan—getting stomped while decked out in full +31 gear was a total embarrassment.

"I’ve already contacted the devs. They’re starting the deletion now."

"Good."

……

At the same time, elsewhere, Ye Chuan sat on his throne, taking stock of his spoils.

The most valuable loot was the spirit fragments—essential for restoring Lilith’s soul energy. The real world’s supply was too scarce, and the Wang family alone couldn’t provide enough.

"If only I could leave this place." Ye Chuan sighed.

He knew the outside was a game world, but he was trapped in this castle. To him, beyond the doors was nothing but void—no scenery, no exit.

"Still, I’ve made decent progress. I’ll leave once the players stop coming."

As he fiddled with his loot, the entire castle suddenly trembled violently, shaking as if struck by an earthquake.

"Huh?"

Ye Chuan immediately levitated, scanning his surroundings.

At the same time, his spiritual senses detected everything in the castle dissolving into particles.

The scenery, the monsters—

Even his skeletal fingers began to disintegrate into drifting motes. Instinctively, he summoned chaotic energy, stabilizing the particles before they could vanish entirely.

The environment around him melted away like flowing sand. In moments, the entire Nask Great Catacombs seemed to dissolve under some unseen force.

"……"

A realization struck Ye Chuan.

Was he being deleted at the source-code level?

"So that’s it." He could roughly guess what was happening.

A direct source-level strike.

Shaking his head, he didn’t bother resisting. The castle was already gone, and he could sense all the monsters had vanished.

Around him, only mist remained, obscuring any sense of direction.

Just as he prepared to be deleted and forcibly logged out, the surroundings suddenly brightened.

"Hmm?" Ye Chuan looked around in confusion—only to find himself standing in a barren wasteland.

The land stretched flat in every direction, dotted with small monsters wandering aimlessly.

He expanded his spiritual senses, covering hundreds of miles, and detected numerous towns scattered across the landscape.

"This place…"

"The game world?"

"Shouldn’t I have been deleted?" Ye Chuan rubbed his skeletal chin, his gaze drifting to the dark energy swirling around his fingers.

A thought flashed through his mind.

The dungeon and its monsters had been erased.

But he, shielded by chaotic energy, remained untouched.

Meaning—

Because the dungeon was deleted, he’d been ejected into the open world?

"Now this is what I call a bug." The ghostly flames in his eye sockets flickered wildly. At the same time, he noticed countless beams of light piercing the sky.

One after another, players materialized across the wasteland.

The one-hour maintenance had ended, and they were logging back in.

When they saw the missing dungeon entrance—and the dungeon boss standing right there in the open—both sides froze.

Ye Chuan: "……"

Players: "……"

"Miss, isn’t that the dungeon boss?" Among the players was the Sky Eagle Guild, who had come to farm skeleton guards for legendary gear.

Seeing Ye Chuan—a boss that should’ve been confined to the dungeon—standing outside left them utterly baffled.

Unlike other players, the Sky Eagle Guild had fought him before.

They knew exactly how terrifying he was.

"This…" Su Qiao stared at the skeletal mage in the distance, a strange thought forming in her mind. "Did maintenance cause a massive glitch?"

The dungeon boss had escaped?!

"Hey there." Ye Chuan waved cheerfully at the players before summoning his Soul Banner beside him.

"Since you’re all here, let’s be friends~"

The next instant, countless chains erupted from the banner, impaling every player in sight. A thousand bodies dissolved into light, leaving behind only scattered spirit fragments.

"Huh? Just fragments?" Noticing no souls had been added to the banner’s collection, Ye Chuan shrugged and gathered the fragments instead.

Fragments would do.

His spiritual senses then locked onto a distant village—where the slain players had apparently respawned.

"Revival point…" A sudden idea struck him.

"Wait, why not just camp the revival point and farm fragments in bulk?"

With that, he tore through space and flew straight toward it.

On the other side, Su Qiao and the others walked out of the resurrection point with grim expressions, only to look up and find the dungeon boss that had just killed them standing right at the church entrance!

The players: "..."