SSS-Rank Talent: Super Upgrade System
Chapter 172: Thirty Seconds Of Silence!

Chapter 172: Thirty Seconds Of Silence!

Minutes before Chaos.....

Daniel moved through the oppressive darkness like a phantom, his S-Grade [Twilight Phantom Step] rendering him more shadow than man.

He rounded a final, sharp bend, his A-Grade [Voidwalk] making him utterly invisible and inaudible.

Daniel melted into a shadowy corner, his [Omniscient Insight] skill extending outwards, listening to their conversation as if he were standing right beside them.

The leader, a tough-looking man with a cybernetic arm that hummed faintly, kicked a loose rock with a heavy boot.

"We’re not out of this mountain yet. The longer we’re down here, the higher the chance some Academy patrol stumbles upon our work.

Pack it up. Quickly! I want this stone in Jaeger’s hands by sunrise."

"Still a shame about that other stash, though," another thief, a brutish man with a shaved head, grumbled as he packed bags with lesser, but still valuable, ores.

"The map said there was a massive nest of refined minerals just a few hundred meters from here.

We searched, but the whole cavern was stripped bare. Not even dust left. Someone beat us to it."

Daniel allowed himself a small, internal smile.

He pictured Kendi, his Treasure Aardvark, probably happily rearranging the massive pile of ore inside his S-Grade [Elementary Storage Ring].

It seemed his new familiar wasn’t the only one with a talent for finding treasure.

The thieves finished packing their loot, their crude tools and bags clanking noisily.

The leader carefully placed the special box containing the magnificent, glowing Luminark Stone into a heavily padded bag.

They were ready to leave. They began to walk back down the narrow, treacherous tunnel they had dug, moving in a single, predictable file.

A cold, predatory smile touched Daniel’s lips.

This was perfect. They were walking straight into his trap. A direct confrontation in the small chamber could have been risky.

A stray energy blast, a single misplaced kinetic punch from his gauntlets, and the entire unstable tunnel could have collapsed, burying them all, including the precious stone.

But here, in this narrow, linear corridor, they were like canaries in a coal mine, and he was the silent, waiting cat.

Few seconds before chaos....

He let the fourth man, the rearguard, pass his hiding spot. Then, he moved!

He didn’t activate his full S-Grade speed. He didn’t need to.

He simply became a flicker of motion, a silent ripple in the darkness.

The S-Grade Blade of The Night appeared in his hand with a faint hiss, its dark metal absorbing the dim, flickering lamplight.

He appeared directly behind the last thief.

The man, broad and thick-necked, didn’t even notice the faint chill that brushed his skin.

Daniel’s blade moved in a single and silent, fluid arc.

There was no resistance, no clang of metal on armor.

The S-Grade weapon, with its reality-cutting sharpness, simply passed through the man’s neck as if it were made of smoke.

The man took one more step, his head slumping forward before his body crumpled to the ground with a soft, final thud.

Not a single sound had escaped his lips.

The third thief in the line, hearing the faint thud, turned around, a confused, annoyed expression on his face.

"What are you doing back there, you clumsy oaf? Hurry up!"

He saw his companion lying motionless on the ground.

His eyes widened in confusion, then dawning horror. He opened his mouth to scream a warning. The scream never came.

Daniel was already there!

His movement was a whisper of displaced air. The Blade of The Night, a blur of absolute darkness, drew a thin, precise line across the second man’s throat.

He choked, gargled, and collapsed onto his partner’s corpse, his wide, terrified eyes staring at the phantom he hadn’t even seen.

The second man in line, the nervous, shifty-eyed youth, felt a faint, warm spray on the back of his neck.

He reached up, his fingers coming away sticky and red. He froze, his entire body trembling violently.

He turned around slowly, his face a mask of pure, overwhelming terror.

He saw the two bodies, then the empty darkness of the tunnel behind them.

"B-boss...?" he stammered, his voice a pathetic whisper.

The leader, still carrying the precious bag, spun around, his cybernetic arm already whirring to life, a small plasma projector extending from the wrist.

"What is it, you useless worm? What’s going on?!"

He saw the two bodies. He saw his last remaining man trembling like a leaf in a hurricane.

And then, he saw the shadow detach itself from the deeper shadows.

Daniel appeared before them, his S-Grade blade held loosely at his side, its dark edge seeming to pull the very light from the flickering lamps.

His face was calm, his eyes as cold and unforgiving as the deep void between stars.

"You," the leader snarled, a mixture of rage and a new, chilling fear in his voice. He raised his plasma projector.

Daniel just smiled. "Too late."

"Boom!"

He didn’t use a flashy skill. He just took a single, deliberate step forward.

The wind, trapped in the narrow tunnel, shrieked and howled as it was violently displaced.

The leader and the shifty-eyed youth were thrown off balance by the sudden, overwhelming pressure wave.

The leader fired his plasma projector wildly, the bolt of energy splashing harmlessly against the ceiling, bringing down a shower of dust and small rocks.

In that single, chaotic moment, Daniel moved. He was a blur, a whisper of vengeance.

He appeared beside the shifty-eyed youth, and the Blade of The Night flashed once.

The youth crumpled without a sound.

The leader roared in fury and desperation, swinging his cybernetic arm in a wild arc.

But Daniel was already gone, reappearing on the man’s other side.

With a final, precise, and almost mercifully quick thrust, Daniel plunged the Blade of The Night into the leader’s heart from behind!

The whirring of the cybernetic arm died down.

The man let out a single, soft gasp, a sound of profound surprise, and then collapsed forward, the bag containing the Luminark Stone falling to the ground with a heavy thud.

The entire fight had lasted less than thirty seconds.

It wasn’t a battle, it was a swift execution.

Daniel stood in the silent, dark tunnel, surrounded by the four bodies, the only sound the faint, dying crackle of the damaged lamps.

He had been the silent threat behind them, ending their mission before it even began.

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