Chapter 385: System Updated! [System has been updated!] Noah felt an incredible surge of power flow through his body as the system completed its processing. Energy coursed through every cell, his muscles densifying, his senses sharpening, his mana channels expanding to accommodate vastly increased capacity. The transformation was so dramatic he had to grip the steering wheel of his GTR to steady himself. ’What the hell is going on?’ Noah thought with alarm as the changes continued cascading through his enhanced physiology. [You have reached Master Rank!] — Host: Noah Carter Age: 28 Shop Level: 3 Daily Revenue: $2,153,000 (or equivalent) Current Assets: $29,250,475 Shop Points: 32,890 Attributes: Strength: 1080, Vitality: 1680, Intelligence: 1080, Agility: 1080 Skills: [Level 20:] Mana Control, Aura, Wind Manipulation, Body Tempering, Swordsmanship, Fire Manipulation [Level 5:] Photographic Memory [Level 4:] Programming, Cooking [Level 3:] Surviving on Ramen, Finance, Gaming — Looking at the status screen that suddenly erupted before him, Noah’s mouth dropped open in complete exasperation. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing—the transformation was beyond anything he could have anticipated. All his attributes had jumped to four digits. His Strength, Intelligence, and Agility had increased from 90 to 1080—a twelve-fold multiplication. His Vitality had surged from 420 to 1680, a fourfold increase that made him virtually indestructible by normal standards. But even more shocking, his combat-related skills had all reached Level 20 simultaneously. Mana Control, Aura, Wind Manipulation, Body Tempering, Swordsmanship, and even his newly acquired Fire Manipulation—all of them had been elevated to Level 20 mastery. "System... just what the hell happened?" Noah demanded, his voice carrying genuine bewilderment. [I have successfully managed to store and process the teardrop fruit’s energy to allow for dimensional travel to Tier 2 worlds. The processing is now complete.] "I mean my stats," Noah clarified impatiently. "Why did everything just explode to these levels?" [I have used the leftover energy from the teardrop processing to dramatically increase your combat-related skills and attributes. The fruit contained far more power than necessary for dimensional expansion alone, and rather than waste the excess, I allocated it to strengthen the Host.] Noah’s mouth twitched with complicated emotions. He had worked his ass off for nearly a month, training obsessively and fighting dangerous battles to painstakingly raise his skills from Level 10 to Level 15. Yet the system had casually used "leftover energy" to boost everything to Level 20, including his newly gained Fire Manipulation skill that had been languishing at Level 5 because of how busy he had become. The absurdity of it was almost insulting to his efforts, even though the result was undeniably beneficial. But before Noah could fully process the dramatic power increase, another notification appeared that made his blood run cold. [IMPORTANT NOTICE: You are no longer able to respawn after death. Death has become permanent. Once you die in other worlds, you will also die on Earth.] Reading that final notification, Noah was completely flabbergasted. His heart rate spiked as the implications crashed over him. "Wait. WHAT?" Noah shouted at the system interface, his earlier satisfaction evaporating into genuine alarm. [Your instant revival was a one-time occurrence tied to specific conditions that no longer exist. You will no longer have such a privilege going forward. However, pay no mind to this limitation—you are still completely invincible within the shop’s boundaries. No force can harm you there.] Noah sat in stunned silence, processing what he’d just learned. His death in the medieval world and subsequent resurrection on Earth hadn’t been an infinite safety net. It had been a single-use ability that was now permanently consumed. Which meant if he died again in Esta or any other dimension, it would be final. No more waking up in his bedroom with phantom pain and a second chance. The realisation settled over him with sobering weight, tempering his excitement about the massive power increase. He was now genuinely mortal again, despite possessing capabilities that would make him nearly unstoppable against most threats. "So I’m Master Rank now, but one fatal mistake and it’s game over," Noah muttered to himself, his mind already recalculating risk assessments for future encounters. The system didn’t respond, apparently considering the matter fully explained. Noah took several deep breaths, forcing himself to accept this new reality. At least his dramatic power increase meant the threshold for what could actually kill him had risen substantially. Master Rank practitioners were considered apex beings in the medieval world—only Grandmasters exceeded them, and even those fights would no longer be hopelessly one-sided. He checked the time on his phone. Just two more hours until he could return to Esta and find out whether Lola had survived, and what chaos his death and resurrection had triggered in his absence. As Noah waited out those two remaining hours, chaos unfolded somewhere else in the city. The notorious scammer siblings had just returned from their second meeting of the day, another successful extortion that had netted them an additional suitcase filled with $85,000 in cash. They were riding high on their latest victory, already planning how to spend their newest haul. Michelle entered her bedroom first, intending to add the new money to her existing stash before celebrating with her brothers. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 "WHERE IS THE MONEY! WE WERE ROBBED!" Michelle’s piercing screams suddenly filled the entire apartment, the raw panic and fury in her voice sending jolts of shock down the spines of her brothers, who immediately rushed toward her room. "What? What are you talking about?" Marcus spoke with bewilderment as he burst through her doorway. "How can we be robbed? The security in this complex is extremely tight, and there are cameras covering every inch of the property. You must have moved it somewhere and forgotten." "Maybe you put the money somewhere else?" Troy suggested more cautiously, trying to maintain rationality despite his sister’s obvious distress. "Let’s calm down and think this through logically." Michelle’s rage increased sharply at their dismissive responses, her face flushing red with fury and panic. "Are you STUPID?! How can I not know where I placed my own money?! I kept it in the same places for months! GO CHECK YOUR ROOMS RIGHT NOW!" The absolute certainty in her voice finally penetrated their denial. Marcus immediately sprinted to his own bedroom, his heart pounding with dread as he pulled open drawers and checked his hiding spots. His eyes widened in horror and then lost all light as he found exactly what his sister had discovered: nothing. Every bag of cash, every hidden bundle of bills, every dollar he had accumulated through years of fraud—all of it was completely gone. "No... This can’t be possible. My money... It’s all gone." Marcus’s voice came out as a broken whisper as the reality crashed over him. His legs barely held him upright before his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. Thud! Troy rushed to his own room and found the same devastating result—his gym bags that should have contained hundreds of thousands in cash were completely empty. But he remained more composed than his siblings, his mind immediately shifting from panic to fury and problem-solving. "I’m going to check the security cameras," Troy announced as he stormed back through the apartment. "Once I find that bastard who did this... he’s dead meat. I’ll make him regret ever stepping foot in this building." He exited the apartment and made his way toward the complex’s security office with purposeful strides, his hands clenched into fists as rage built with every step. Bang! Bang! Bang! The loud knocks of Troy’s fist against the security office door echoed through the corridor with barely restrained violence. Clink! The lock disengaged and the door opened to reveal the on-duty security officer, a middle-aged man with a confused expression. "Mr. Troy? How can I help you at this hour?" "My apartment was robbed clean right before your eyes, and you’re asking how you can help?!" Troy’s voice carried venomous accusation as he pushed past the startled officer. "Move out of the way and show me the camera feeds immediately! I want to see who entered our unit!" The security officer, recognizing the seriousness of the accusation and wanting to avoid blame, immediately moved to his workstation and pulled up the relevant camera feeds. "Of course, sir. Let me bring up the footage from your floor and the building entrances..." Troy leaned over the monitors, his eyes scanning frantically through hours of recorded footage while the officer worked the controls. What they both didn’t know—what they could never know—was that no matter how hard they searched through those recordings, no matter how many angles they reviewed or how far back they went, they would never find the person who had robbed them. The cameras showed nothing unusual. No suspicious individuals entering the building. No one approaching their apartment door. No signs of forced entry or tampering. Just hours of perfectly normal footage where absolutely nothing of interest occurred, because Noah had replaced the live feeds with older recordings during the exact window when he’d committed his raid. As far as the security system was concerned, nobody had entered or left their apartment all day. The robbery was technically impossible according to the digital evidence. Which meant the siblings would have no proof, no suspects, no leads, and absolutely no way to report this to police without revealing that they’d been hoarding hundreds of thousands in cash. They were trapped in a perfect catch—robbed of everything but unable to seek help without incriminating themselves. Troy’s face grew progressively darker as he watched the "clean" footage, slowly realizing that whoever had done this was far more sophisticated than any common thief.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​