SSS-Tier Extraction: From Outcast to Overgod!
Chapter 46: Sealing Victory

Chapter 46: Sealing Victory

Ryan stood his ground, his mind racing faster than his pounding heart. His initial plan, charge in and stab the shiny robot had failed spectacularly.

His best knife barely scratched it, and his brand-new force field was already broken. This Array Sentinel was a walking, regenerating fortress, and he was starting to feel like a very small, very squishy tourist who had wandered into the wrong part of town.

He needed a new plan. A better plan.

The Sentinel, for its part, wasn’t waiting around for him to think. It continued its relentless assault. A god Beam shot out, forcing Ryan to dive behind a massive, humming metal pillar.

The beam melted a hole right through the other side. Then came another Static Pulse, a wave of disruptive energy that made his hair stand on end and caused his gauntlet to spark nervously. He couldn’t stay on the defensive forever.

He decided to switch from attacking to observing. He used his "Lore Scanner," which was now supercharged by his Neural Symbiote Map, to analyze the Sentinel.

He didn’t just look at the robot; he looked at the energy flowing through it and around it. He dodged and weaved between its powerful attacks, his eyes constantly scanning, gathering data.

And then he saw it. It was a subtle detail, something he would have missed if he wasn’t looking for it. Every thirty seconds or so, just before the Sentinel repaired itself or launched a major attack, tiny, almost invisible tendrils of blue energy would snake out from the soles of its feet and connect to the glowing conduits on the floor.

It was only for a second, but it was there. The Sentinel was literally plugging itself into the Array to recharge. That was its "Energy Siphon" talent at work. It wasn’t just passively absorbing energy; it was actively drinking it through invisible straws.

"Aha," Ryan whispered, a grin spreading across his face. "So you have a drinking problem."

His new plan was born. It was risky and would require perfect timing, but it was better than trying to punch a mountain until it fell over.

He wasn’t going to attack the Sentinel anymore. He was going to attack its power supply. He was going to cut the power cord.

He burst from behind his cover, not running at the Sentinel, but running around it. He activated his Chrono-Manipulation talent, wrapping himself in a cloak of "Haste."

The world slowed down just enough for him to see the patterns in the chaos. He used his incredible agility, amplified by his Boots of Alacrity, to weave between the Sentinel’s god Beam attacks.

The ground around him turned into a scorched crater, but he was unharmed.

The Sentinel, its simple programming probably confused by his strange behavior, focused all its attacks on him. It stomped and fired, trying to pin down the small, fast-moving nuisance.

Ryan ignored the giant robot and focused entirely on the floor.

He saw one of the conduits pulse brightly as the Sentinel began to draw power from it. He changed direction, sliding across the smooth stone floor. With a quick, powerful strike, he plunged his reinforced knife not into the robot, but into the thick, glowing cable on the ground, severing the connection.

The conduit sparked violently and went dark. The Sentinel’s regeneration, which had been healing a small scratch on its arm, flickered and stopped.

It worked!

The Sentinel let out a screech of pure, digital rage. It was the first sound it had made that sounded less like a machine and more like an angry animal.

It now knew what he was doing. It focused all of its firepower on him, its attacks becoming more frantic, more desperate.

A god Beam grazed Ryan’s shoulder, and even a near miss was enough to singe his cloak and send a jolt of pain through his arm. His Kinetic Field Projector was shattered, so every hit, no matter how small, was felt.

He took a glancing blow from a Static Pulse that made his vision swim and his teeth ache. But he gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain. His Vitality stat was high for a reason. He could take a beating.

He scrambled to the next active conduit and severed it. Then the next. Each one he cut made the Sentinel visibly weaker. Its god Beams became a little thinner, a little less powerful.

The blue lightning arcing across its body started to fade. He was successfully cutting it off from its unlimited power source. He was turning it from an unstoppable force into just a very big, very tough robot.

The Sentinel, enraged and weakening, made one last, desperate move. It launched itself at Ryan, its cannon-arms swinging like massive clubs, abandoning its energy attacks for a pure physical assault.

Ryan, seeing the final conduit right in front of him, ignored the charging machine. He put all his strength into one final strike and severed the last main power link.

The moment the connection was broken, the Array Sentinel stumbled. The bright blue light in its eyes dimmed to a dull flicker. Its body, which had been crackling with immense power, now seemed strangely quiet. Its god Beam sputtered and died completely.

It was vulnerable.

Ryan seized the opportunity. He dodged the Sentinel’s clumsy, weakened swing. He used its own outstretched arm as a ramp, his Boots of Alacrity giving him the traction he needed to run right up its chassis. He leaped into the air, landing squarely on its broad shoulders.

He raised his knife. His first strike plunged deep into the robot’s primary optical sensor, shattering the glowing red eye. The Sentinel was blind. His second strike, guided by his system’s analysis of its now-weakened state, went straight into its core, which was now exposed and no longer protected by a powerful energy field. The knife sank to the hilt.

The great Array Sentinel shuddered, a low groan escaping its metallic frame. It tilted backward, its systems failing, and crashed to the floor with a deafening, final CLANG.

Silence returned to the chamber. Ryan, standing triumphantly on the chest of the defeated machine, let out a long, shaky breath.

"+600 god Points!" the system chimed.

"For being the top contributor in a victorious Challenge, you have gained +2 Influence!"

Where the Sentinel had fallen, two items materialized in a flash of light. The first was a "Pristine Sentinel Core," a Tier 4 crafting material that hummed with pure, contained energy. It was flawless.

The second was a new type of loot box: a "god Challenge Cache." It glowed with a golden light, promising a reward worthy of the victory.

Just as he was about to collect his loot, the god Warden’s voice boomed through the Labyrinth, announcing the final results of the Scramble for all to hear.

"Ryan Stone of Genesis Outpost #7 has collected 100 Power Cores from the god Array! Genesis Outpost #7’s total now exceeds 500 Cores! Genesis Outpost #7 WINS the Power Core Scramble!"

The victory announcement was broadcast not just to the two competing Outposts, but across the entire Sector Gamma CommNet.

Ryan had done it. He had single-handedly gathered the majority of the cores and defeated the final boss. The Circuit Breakers’ challenge had been answered, and it had been crushed.