It was 2067, July 23rd in the previous timeline. Boundless had released on March 21st of 2065 at midday on the dot, and had taken the world by storm soon enough.
Around December 2065, Boundless vs the World occurred and propelled the game into the global limelight, and the rule against it had been harsh due to the callous behavior of Amber, a representative of GloryGore Studios.
However, all those who had gone against Boundless eventually became filled with endless regret and anguish when the game pods released along with Update 5 on the 2nd of February 2066. Since then, many things had changed in the world and the world order had been turned on its head.
The game had been out for a total of 26 months, which when multiplied by four due to time dilation, was 104 months, or just slightly over eight and half years.
Four months ago, around February 14 of 2067, Draco had walked in on Ao Shangtian about to penetrate Eva, filling him with rage and hatred.
The moment he logged out of the game, his face changed as he noticed that the apartment block was too silent.
Just before he went in, it had been lively as hell with the usual music, gaming, playing around and dogs barking, but it was a silent zone now. As the number 1 Darkrow DPS swordsman, Draco's senses were top-notch.
He had been fighting and killing monsters and even NPC humans for over 7 years. The skills he had developed in this time had even caused two bloodline wielders in the form of Shangtian and Eva to marvel endlessly at his limitless talent.
He quickly realized something was wrong and reached under his luxurious bed for the chest he kept. He kicked it open and took out a slightly used longsword that he had saved up to buy after changing his gold coins in Boundless to real money, so that he could practice in real life as well.
He was determined to unlock Control by any means necessary, but he had stopped using this sword after the pods came out as he could be immersed for months on end.
With the time difference between the game and the real world, why would he then waste time practicing outside?
Unfortunately, this Draco was still in his naive phase, so he did not think of getting a gun or something else for self defense. After all, he was in a high-end neighborhood now after hooking up with Eva for so long and establishing himself as Vice-Guildmaster of Darkrow.
Draco moved stealthily to the window, and then cursed when he saw that the dark streets were empty. His eyes narrowed when he saw that some black cars had been parked outside and some strange men were getting down.
They all had bronze skin and wore Asian clothes, looking arrogant and full of despotic power. Draco identified them as similar to that fucker Ao Shangtian, and his hatred boiled until his eyes became red.
Suddenly, one of the bronze-skinned men looked up right at his apartment window, and then smiled confidently. He pointed to Draco and the men around him seemed to shout and - to Draco's shock and horror - jumped like miniature Hulks and broke through the walls of his apartment.
Draco had to dive and roll backward to avoid being smashed to death, and four burly men with bronze skin grinned maliciously as they surrounded him in the center. Draco's heart sank as he had witnessed their power and assumed them to be elite Control masters.
But fuck, there were only supposed to be less than 20 worldwide and they were old men! As far as was public, only Eva had been the first among the youth to break through and achieve Control, while he and Shangtian were on the cusp of achieving it.
Currently, both he and Shangtian had achieved False Tier 1 via the Body of Godliness, but they were lacking a bit to sublimate their senses and minds to achieve Tier 1 in the Void of Perfection. If Draco had the VoP, Shuangtian would never have bothered to have him surrounded four months ago, because Draco would have detected the danger and run.
It was also why he clumsily rushed everything to try and rape Eva. He felt immense danger from Draco's speedy growth. Despite being the prodigy of his Lineage and the other being crippled, Shangtian felt that as long as Draco managed to reach the real Tier 1 Control, he would no longer be someone he could easily touch.
The four burly bronze men attacked Draco at once, blocking all his escape routes and showing immensely skilled combat experience. Draco though, was one step above with the Body of Godliness and easily avoided the attacks he could see with impossible movements.
(AN: Remember, Tier 1 BOG granted the ability to directly control muscles in the body. A person could perfectly re-allocate force/power in their body and control the various senses within the body with relative ease.)
Draco slashed at one of the bronze-skinned men with his sword, making sure to guard against his counterattack if he failed. However, to his and the shock of the other 3, his blade easily severed the man in half from the waist.
Draco was stunned for a second before he had an absurd feeling. Were these fellows not Control masters? If so, then how did they get such herculean strength?
Not to mention, even if they were merely half-step Control masters like himself, why didn't the guy control his muscles to harden around the slashing point to prevent himself from being bisected?
However, Draco had finished all his body's force into his slash, so his blade sliced through the fellow clean, like his flesh was that of a normal person!
The other three came out of their shock and roared with anguish. "Bastard sub-human trash, how dare you kill Ao Fangtian! Die!!"
They charged forward like berserkers with red eyes. Using his skill and BoG, Draco easily avoided their strikes and separate the three of them from their bodies. Their face showed shock and despair, like they never expected to die here, in the hands of what they called a sub-human.
Draco was speechless. Their combat skills were not bad, but they had charged seemingly expecting him to stand in place and die. As for him, he always targeted waists ever since he had become a half-step Control monster because his allocated force added enough strength to bisect foes.
Aiming for necks seemed obvious but was dangerous. Necks had 'smaller hitboxes' and were harder to hit as well as easier to defend or evade for foes compared to their waist.
Draco snapped out of his confusion and rushed out of his apartment's door. His senses told him of danger and he ducked, avoiding a punch that caused the air above his head to explode in a shockwave.
Draco was shocked and terrified. If that punch hit his body, even with BoG to defend him, at least a few of his organs would have been crushed. Immediately, he cleared his mind and removed his growing arrogance at easily defeating the earlier bunch.
Even if they weren't Control masters, they were some sort of special elite force and their strength was far above what a human could possess!
The man who struck at Draco snorted with dissatisfaction and then stomped down. Draco easily rolled back dexterously and rose to his feet, his eyes bulging as he saw the fellow smash through the concrete floor with his leg.
Draco knew even with Body of Godliness at its max power, he could not achieve that. The best he could do was crack the floor, but he would likely shatter his ankle if he did so. This guy stomped cleaned through and he only crushed that he missed his target, there was no damage to his leg!
Suddenly, Draco's mind clicked. He remembered that Shangtian, that bastard, always displayed similar abilities. He had god-like strength and he could always regenerate extremely fast from any damage, making him Darkrow's number 1 tank. Without his tenacity, many of Darkrow's victories would have been impossible.
Draco had personally seen him punch a Rank 3 Ogre to death in one hit when they had just been at Rank 2! Shangtian tried to hide it from the others but Draco had seen, which caused him to become suspicious.
Draco had later questioned him about it and he remembered that Shangtian's eyes flickered and a look of viciousness appeared on his face, but Eva had appeared and given him a cold look, which shut him up. He then made an excuse about managing to deliver a critical hit and left, and the matter was never resolved after that.
If Draco had been given time to think, he would have come to a shocking conclusion, but thinking about Eva and Shangtian for so long caused his mind to hurt and his eyes to become bloodshot.
While his foes were trying to pull his leg out, he leaped over by concentrating all the force into his right ankle, pouncing forward like an arrow and slashing across his target's waist.
The fellow was still cursing and pulling his foot when his upper body slid off and fell to the ground, his expression changing from irritation to fear. Draco ignored him and rushed to the elevator, having long accepted that these fellows only seemed to have super strength, but not the super constitution or super speed that usually came with it.
They had average bodies only slightly better than a normal human and their reactions, reflexes, and movement speed were completely on the level of a normal person. It was just that their physical strength was like the Hulk.
Draco reached the elevator and pressed the button to go down, then rushed away and moved towards the stairs. His goal was to trick those who were on the first floor waiting for him, making them think he was coming down.
After all, who else would come down apart from him who was trying to escape? Draco then grabbed one of the bodies and rushed to the stairs, throwing it down and letting it bang everything on its way down.
He then grabbed another body and then kicked open one of the other apartment doors. He saw that the place was empty and did not bother to check further. He rushed towards the window and kicked it open, throwing the body he held out.
He waited for three seconds before jumping out from the window as well, curling his body into a ball. He spun a few times in the air and then concentrated all his force into his legs, tightening the muscles there. He released his curled form and landed on the ground with a loud thump, causing him to grimace in pain as his bones shook.
He had jumped from the 5th floor after all, and if not for the Body of Godliness he would have likely shattered his leg bones and become a cripple, lying there while crying in pain as his assailants leisurely walked over to finish him off.
Draco gritted his teeth and looked around. Fortunately for him, his assailants had left none behind. Draco saw his chance and made a break for one of the cars, aiming to drive off.
He could only jump away with fear while covering his face as a huge boulder slammed into the car at the side like a missile, causing the vehicle to fly into the nearby wall and send debris flying his way.
Draco was slightly injured from the sheer force of the small rocks that flew from the crash and struck him as well as the wind force of the boulder he narrowly dodged. With trembling lips, he turned to see a handsome young man with bronze skin and a slightly less burly body walk out from the side with his arms folded behind his back.
"Tsk, this is why I hate letting the side branches do things. With purities below 1%, their abilities are really trash! Only main branch geniuses like myself can accomplish the task!"