The Crimson base was quiet just before sunrise. That tense, sharp kind of quiet you only get before something explodes.
I stood at the open southern gate, checking my gear for the fifth time.
The bounty on my head was still active. Stormveil's guild board had officially listed me as a Kill on Sight target. Every scout they had in the region was watching for movement.
Behind me, Nira checked her dual blades while talking to Thorn and Dace, who'd both volunteered without hesitation. We were only taking a small squad; fast, silent, brutal.
Our goal: hit Stormveil's forward outpost near the Tainted Dune line, burn their supply cache, kill anyone guarding it, and vanish before reinforcements showed up.
A surgical strike.
But I had another reason for the raid.
One I hadn't shared yet.
"Everyone ready?" I asked.
Dace slammed his shield into his backplate. "Born ready."
Thorn didn't say anything. Just nodded and activated his camouflage module.
Nira gave me a look. "You know this is suicide if they see us first."
"That's why they won't."
We took the valley pass that curved through the southern rock ridges, slower but almost completely off the tracking grid. No drones, no automated alerts, no guild satellites.
Halfway there, we switched to Void Protocol, silent comms, low light gear only, no auras, no unnecessary chatter.
Stormveil's outpost came into view just after we crossed a burnt hilltop. It looked more like a fortress than a forward base: steel walls, pulse towers, automated turrets, and half a dozen guards on patrol even before sunrise.
Most players would've walked away.
But most players weren't me.
I pulled up the terrain scanner I'd unlocked as part of my Commander bonus.
There.
An old maintenance trench beneath the ridge, partially collapsed but still passable. It ran all the way beneath their southern turret nest and came out near the power relay.
"Entry point located," I said.
We slid in one by one.
It was tight. Dirt crumbling, air stale, and rats, actual rats, crawling over boots. But it brought us within spitting distance of the outpost's inner fence.
Nira went first. She slithered up the rusted ladder, jammed the locking panel, and cut power to the nearby motion alarms.
We climbed out right into their blind spot.
Three guards were drinking stim-packs and laughing about something. One of them turned just in time to see my blade coming.
He didn't laugh again.
We dropped the others fast. Quiet. No alerts.
Then we sprinted to the storage depot and placed the thermal charges.
Thorn rigged the fuel tanks. Dace planted concussion mines in the sand leading to the main gate.
By the time we were halfway back through the trench, the system alerts kicked in.
[Stormveil Outpost Under Attack - Sector Delta-3]
Sabotage Detected - Supply Cache Destroyed]
Defenders Offline - Auto-Reinforcements Deployed]
Then the explosions hit.
One, two, then a rolling chain of fire and smoke that lit up the whole ridgeline.
We didn't stay to watch.
Stormveil would send a war team fast, and I didn't want them tracking us back to Crimson base.
We moved through the trench, back into the pass, and rerouted through an abandoned ore shaft.
Only when we reached the outer dunes did we slow down.
Nira pulled her mask down. "That was loud."
"Good," I said.
"Won't that make them come after us even harder?"
I shook my head. "They already are. This just proves we're not waiting around anymore."
Thorn handed me his portable uplink. "You'll want to see this."
The regional guild board had updated.
Stormveil's supply chain had taken a 28% hit. Their war party deployment rate was down. Their leadership board listed Commander Vaelric as an "escalated threat."
That wasn't the part that made me smile.
The part that did was this:
[Global System Notification]
Player: Vaelric
Feat Achieved: Reaper's Strike
Description: Successfully sabotage an enemy guild base while under a global bounty
Reward: 5,000 Credits, +1 Legendary Skill Token
Title Gained: "Ghost Commander"
I opened the skill token immediately and rolled it.
Got a rare drop: Reaper's Collapse.
Active Skill
Drop a decaying void mark on impact zone
Pulls enemies in for 3 seconds
Explodes for 150% AoE damage
Cooldown: 120 seconds
"Perfect," I muttered, loading it into my rotation.
This was what the bounty hunters didn't understand.
They thought the bounty was a punishment, a limit, a way to corner me.
But it was a system multiplier.
As long as I was marked, every fight, every raid, every kill stacked my bonuses higher. Every guild that tried to take me down only gave me more to use against them.
By the time we made it back to Crimson Base, word had already spread.
Players clustered around outpost terminals across the central zones, watching the replay clips. Forums were lighting up. Even the system-wide chatter was glitching from the volume of messages.
The raid had gone viral. I'd done it with a bounty tag still active.
A few bold headlines had already appeared on the regional newsfeeds:
"Void Reaper Strikes Back"
"Commander Vaelric: Ghost in the System?"
"Bounty Hunter Kill Count Reaches 70+"
I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or annoyed. But I knew one thing: this wasn't enough.
A message wasn't a message if it didn't come from me directly.
So I opened the guild terminal in Reaper's Reach and activated the Commander's Broadcast Node; a feature I'd been saving for the right moment.
It allowed a public, unfiltered message to be sent across the game's open channel once per week.
Usually reserved for guild announcements or system victories.
This time, I was using it for something different.
I stood in the war room, the blue holo-screen flickering in front of me, and hit "Record."
[Broadcast Begin]
"Stormveil... this one's for you."
I didn't shout. I didn't curse.
I kept my voice calm. Level. Focused.
"You put a price on my head. That's fair. I embarrassed your elite squads, and now your pride's bleeding. But the bounty? The kill bonuses? The public threats? All that did was turn me into a headline."
I smiled just enough to let it sting.
"So I'm offering you one last shot. One raid. One push. Send everyone. Bring your officers, your elites, your tanks, your cloaked blades. Throw everything you've got at Crimson Base."
A pause.
"Because when you fail, and you will, the bounty ends. And I start hunting."
I leaned in closer to the camera, eyes locked.
"You came looking for a kill. But now? You've made me a cause. Let's finish what you started."
[Broadcast End]
System alert went off five minutes later.
[World Alert - Commander Broadcast Detected]
Player: Vaelric
Message Reach: Global
Effect: All Stormveil players receive Temporary Aggro Flag in Crimson Territory
Status: Warpath Event Triggered
Bonus Activated: Defender Kill Rewards +20% XP / Credits / Drop Rate (7 Days)
Nira stood behind me, arms crossed, watching it roll in.
"That's one way to start a fire."
"It's already burning," I said. "I just threw in a few grenades."
Thorn grunted. "You realize what's coming now, right?"
"I'm counting on it."
For the next twenty-four hours, the base turned into a machine.
New recruits flooded in from Ironclaw command, drawn by the kill bonuses and global exposure. Engineers fast-tracked turret upgrades. Walls were reinforced with harvested alloys and magnetic plating.
NPC vendors arrived too, one of them even set up a black market booth for illegal mods.
The Crimson Base wasn't a ruin anymore.
It was 'my fortress.'
When the scouts reported that Stormveil's elite squads were mobilizing, over 50 players heading directly toward our coordinates, I didn't flinch.
I walked out onto the upper tower, looked over the courtyard where new guards and old allies were prepping for war, and said only two words:
"Let them."