Cole made his way to the ladder behind the boss, making sure to not keep his back to them, not exactly sure what the boss was playing at. But in the end he was able to get on top of the ladder, and crept up slowly one rung at a time before reaching the tunnel and stepping into it.

The moment he did so, the same shield that had been blocking his advancement popped into place, blocking his way back as the tunnel he was flooded itself with light, and a service entrance made itself known to him at the other end. But he was nothing if not paranoid or careful, however the first step he took, his vision was flooded with system prompts.

[1st Floor Side Quest (100%Complete)! Survive the Revenant’s Betrayal: Rewards: 500 Tisons, 2 Small Iron Rank Loot Chest]

[You Have Entered Instance Dungeon: Revenant Undercity! while you didn’t get the chance to explore the major parts of the under city, you had gained a direct line to the entity responsible for running the revenant undercity and even creating the revenants. You were able to best it and get it to make a compromise. Congratulations! You kept your life and completed the quest in an ingenious manner.]

[100% Rewards: 1 Tigon, 3 Large Iron Rank Loot Chest, 1 Complete Set Iron Rank Armor, Silver Rank V Essex Collective Special Forces Combat Chip] 𝐞𝗻𝐨𝘃𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝗺

[You Have Gained 1000 Exp! You have leveled up to 8! +15 stat points!]

As soon as the system prompt ran across his vision, he felt his body lock up as he immediately went sprawling across the ground. The adrenaline inhaler had pretty much run its course. Cole felt as if a heavy woolen blanket had been placed on his body, while his bones and muscles had been replaced with foam and ice cream.

He felt weak, but thankfully it seemed as if this tunnel was a safe zone, and his rewards had gone straight to his inventory. And while he really couldn’t pay much attention to the loot boxes he had gained, the armor and chip were different matters entirely. He could equip them both and appraise them without too much necessary movements.

The loot boxes can be opened, but that would require him to start moving around in order to gather the loot within them. Though it was quite weird why a prism was not offered as a reward, but he knew how rare those things were and there were almost never part of quest rewards unless the quest itself was really important.

You will find them dropping from slain enemies, but beyond this first floor that Cole was extremely suspicious off as having some sort of boost, he didn’t think prisms would be that easy to get in the future. Possibly it might even be a lot harder in this event than it was in the normal game, hence why people would probably always aim for the first to get to the next floor bonus.

[Equipment: Iron X Basic Stealth Battle-Suit<>Type: Ability Armor <>Energy Output: 4 Point Per Seconds<>Effective: Bronze I>> Iron X Psionic/Aura<> Attachment Slots(4): (1) Skill Attachment [Invisibility]: Become invisible for the duration of 4 energy per second.// (2) Skill Attachment [Soundless): all sounds are eliminated by 100% when Invisibility is active and by 45% when Inactive.// Skill Attachment [Night Vision]: can see in all forms of low light to complete darkness.]

[Augmentation Chip Slotted In! 1 of 1 augment slot utilized!]

[Augment: Silver V Essex Collective Special Forces Combat Chip: +7 Levels to Dexterity, Perception and Attunement!]

The world seemed to be one of color and electricity the moment the combat chip was slotted in. Cole was shocked, as this was completely unlike anything he has ever felt in Titan Rising.

The slotting of an augment was always a lackluster affair, as basing the slotting of an augment on reality would mean a lot of pain and surgery, and no player would be too willing to go through that.

But this was as real as it gets, Cole could feel the bump in stats almost immediately, and especially from his perception stat. he could smell, see, hear and feel almost everything around him.

And that seemed to be the bump he needed to completely eliminate the weakness from the usage of the adrenaline inhaler. But even at that he could only take wobbly steps as his body quickly tried to reorient itself with his new level of power and the aftermath of using the inhaler.

Cole turned around to look at where he had come from, and was shocked to see that all that was left there was a concrete wall, not the open path that led to the boss’s chambers. He shrugged then took slow quick steps, wishing he had a mirror to see what he looked like right now.

He was clad head to toe in a midnight blue with red highlight battle suit. The blue was so dark it was almost black, and the helmet covered the entirety of his head, while making holsters for his hand gun and dagger.

He wasn’t so sure about the armor, it looked really good, but it was a stealth suit. Built for sneaking around and would offer poor protection in direct conflict. But still it was an extremely valuable haul, and would probably come in handy is he needed to get back to the coliseum.

*Bang!*

There was a loud smash against the door in front of him. Cole reacted according and pulled out his gun, holding it with both hands as he slowly took tentative step towards the door.

He heard scuffling, grunts, and a pained yell, as it seemed whoever was making the noise had been murdered by someone else, or by the Nijat aliens that were probably everywhere by now.

Cole took a few minutes to wait, until he was absolutely sure there was no immediate danger behind the door. Then he pushed it open, staying by the side of the door and crouched on the ground to make himself a smaller target.

The door swung inwards, and burnt corpse of a woman crashed into the tunnel. Cole took three steps back, his gun raised as he narrowed his eyes in extreme focus, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But fortunately, there was nothing like that.

After a count to three, he popped his head outside, gun first, discovering that the door opened up into what was a rather unremarkable alley way. It was littered with dirt and over turned trash bins. But beyond that was the stench of burnt flesh.

And that brought to notice the bevy of corpses in the alley. People of all sizes and probably all ages were lying dead. Some burned, others looked drained of blood ad everything vital within their bodies. Others were ripped to shreds…. Obviously a group of Nijat aliens had chased them into the alley way and slaughtered them all.

They were NPCs, slaughtered by other NPCs, which explained why their bodies was still here instead of pixelating, like those killed by players would. Cole noticed that both buildings that bordered the alleyway were massive stores of some sort.

They had fire escapes that led to flat roofs. And while that might leave him a bit exposed, it would at least help him canvass the area to know where he was, and know just in which direction he had to start moving.

He ignored the dead bodies around him without so much as a twitch, looking at them through a lens of emotionlessness. He activated the stealth suit and went up the stairs of the building to his right.

He felt a steady drain of his energy, as the suit’s invisibility function was utilized. He couldn’t use it for long as he did not have a significant amount of energy to use it constantly, at least not until he crossed level 10 where the energy increment bonus for those who don’t have the stats needed to increase would jump from 5 every level to 20, especially when race and class have been determined.

Those too would help with most of his stats and give bonus to energy gains per level. Cole made it to the roof and came face to face with a Nijat alien.

He paused, his heart involuntarily jumping into his throat in fright as this was not expected. But there was no reaction from the alien itself, making Cole remember he was currently invisible. He took a deep breath and moved to the side, his steps silent as the Alien scaled over the edge of the roof to step onto the fire escape.

Perhaps it was a little suspicious of the alley, or it might have heard Cole moving before he activated invisibility. But regardless in that moment it decided to use the ladder down, Cole had already sprung to action.

He slid his Vibro blade into the ribs of the Alien, then pulled it out as his invisibility faded to send the blade into its neck. Before hefting the alien over the fire escape, watching impassively as if felt head first to the ground.

Its bulbous head smashed apart like a watermelon, netting Cole a few experience points, before turning around to come face to face with another Nijat Alien, fury etched in that face of the second.

This time however, Cole was not lucky enough to be invisible, and was fully exposed to the alien.

“Fuck!”