My strength is 2 to the power of my level

Ares noticed that his name had turned blood red, and even his skeletal body was enveloped in a vivid red glow.

Most importantly, his status had changed. He was now an NPC?

Ares was momentarily stunned. But soon, the sharp pain brought him back to his senses. The fiery glow in his eye sockets flickered as he realized that with Mordred's death and logout, the venomous spiders had lost their target and turned their aggression towards him.

With the disappearance of "ownership," it seemed his sense of pain had returned.

His HP was infinite, but the pain was very real, even though he was just a skeleton made of bones.

Ares raised his hand and with a single swing of his sword, wiped them out. He then proceeded to clear the rest of the wild creatures in the area.

His experience bar inched forward by 0.01%.

Ares felt a rush of satisfaction. Without Mordred, he could move freely and enjoy all the experience points for himself. Although the experience gain was slow, at least it was visible.

Ares didn't know that players didn't truly die when they logged out after death. Even if he did, he wouldn't care.

Mordred's strength was nothing to worry about, and even if he logged back in, what could he do? His staff was safely tucked away in Ares' inventory.

Ares didn't give Mordred another thought and instead began to ponder his future plans.

He was of human race, but his current status was undead. If he increased his strength enough, could he change his status again? Could he grow flesh and blood?

If that happened, could he use a human body to interact with players?

Ares was curious about the players and didn't want to stay in the wild zones forever. If possible, he hoped to blend in with the crowd.

Looking down at his bare skeleton body, he felt a wave of disdain. It was too unsightly!

Gazing at the level 30 wild zone ahead, the fiery glow in Ares' eye sockets flickered. He was determined to cross this barrier and venture into deeper wild zones!

The immediate task was to grind and level up.

With his goal set, Ares turned to head to the next area of wild creatures.

As he turned, he noticed a girl with long blue hair and a robe standing quietly not far away.

She was beautiful, and her gaze was filled with curiosity as she looked at Ares. The tip of her staff glowed with a soft light, occasionally releasing snowflakes that drifted and then vanished into the air. Beside her stood a snow monster as large as a bear.

An ice mage, Ares' mind automatically concluded.

When did she appear? He hadn't noticed her at all.

Ares opened her panel.

[Player: Aurora]

[Gender: Female]

[Level: 20]

[Class: Ice Mage]

[Combat Power: ???]

[Health: ???]

...

The rest of the information was marked with question marks, indicating it was hidden.

"An NPC?" Aurora murmured softly, puzzled. "What's a level 6 NPC doing wandering in a level 20 wild zone? A red name? Killed 37 players? No wonder he's so red, like he's dripping blood..."

Ares was startled. She could see all that?

His red name and the glow were because he had killed players? Would there be consequences?

From her words, Ares sensed that having a red name wasn't a good thing. He contemplated whether he should kill her.

He had seen that when Mordred killed wild creatures, they dropped gear and materials. And coins. But when it came to himself, he only gained experience and evolution points, nothing else. Only when he killed players did gear drop.

The fiery glow in Ares' eye sockets flickered as he raised his golden bone sword. Sensing something was wrong, Aurora instinctively waved her staff, causing frost to form at the feet of the strange skeleton NPC. Not daring to linger, she commanded her snow monster to block in front of her, summoned an frost wolf, and rode away.

Just as she fled, a roar came from the snow monster behind her. A sharp sword aura pursued her.

Aurora felt her connection with the snow monster sever, and her heart sank. Without hesitation, she threw seven or eight ice walls behind her, cast a shield on herself, and fled desperately.

But her movement speed was no match for Ares' attack speed. She heard the ice walls behind her shatter instantly, and then her health bar was emptied.

Aurora gritted her teeth in frustration, unwillingly watching as she was forced to log out.

Ares sheathed his sword and ran to where Aurora had logged out, picking up the gear she had dropped. It was a helmet.

[Tier 2 Novice Helmet: Wearable]

[Quality: C]

[Intelligence: +10]

Ares dismantled the previous F-quality ordinary helmet and tossed it into his inventory, then donned the new helmet.

His [Intelligence] attribute reached 10 points. But Ares didn't notice any significant change. It seemed he hadn't yet figured out the true function of [Intelligence].

He didn't dwell on it, putting the matter aside, and turned to continue grinding and leveling up.

...

Meanwhile, in the real world, in a high-end residential area, Aurora gasped for air, clutching her chest as she sat up in bed. Her face still bore the shock of death.

A fine, prickling pain radiated from her heart. The heart rate monitor on her wrist beeped an alarm. A sense of suffocation washed over her.

Dying once in the game had triggered her heart condition.

Aurora took deep breaths, fumbling to open the drawer by her bedside, pulling out her "special heart emergency medication."

With trembling hands, she opened the bottle, shook out a pill, and popped it into her mouth, washing it down with half a glass of water. As the pain subsided, she collapsed back onto the bed, exhausted.

Aurora, 18, had a severe congenital heart condition. It was irreparable, with heart transplant being the only cure. Due to her rare blood type, she hadn't found a matching donor.

Fortunately, Aurora was born into a wealthy family, so money wasn't an issue. From a young age, she had an intelligent micro pacemaker implanted.

If her heart suddenly stopped, the pacemaker would immediately take over, connect with her wrist heart rate monitor, dial emergency services, and use bioelectric currents to restart her heart.

With the emergency heart medication she always carried, she had lived safely to 18. Unable to engage in strenuous activities, she rarely played games.

But when the "Genesis" online game descended on Earth, everyone, regardless of age or gender, was pulled into the game while they slept, becoming players.

Initially, Aurora was bewildered and somewhat panicked, especially after hearing that the game's sensations were incredibly realistic, identical to real life. She worried that such a stimulating environment might trigger her heart condition.

She was cautious at first, but soon discovered she adapted surprisingly well. Perhaps because she had trained herself to control her emotions to avoid excitement, her emotional stability was enhanced in the game, thanks to her ice abilities.

After dying a few times initially due to inexperience, she found that aside from some palpitations, she wasn't significantly affected, which emboldened her.

Eventually, even dying didn't cause much emotional turmoil, as she could simply log back in after twenty-four hours.

Since reaching level 10, Aurora hadn't died again. In just a week, she had leveled up from 10 to 20.

After reaching level 20, she boldly ventured into the wild zones alone to grind. Unexpectedly, she witnessed the half-golden, red-glowing skeleton tossing a player into the "Venomous Spider" swarm.

Curious, she opened the skeleton's panel and saw the large red name: [Ares], along with the information that followed: [Number of Players Killed: 37]

This NPC named [Ares] was actually hunting players!