"Who the fuck does this guy think he is?" the fiery-tempered man from before snapped again, his Italian accent bleeding through as his anger flared.

The rest of the group quickly followed suit, firing a barrage of scathing words at Uhtred. A string of heavy curses and goading remarks echoed through their ranks, all aimed at getting under his skin to force a reaction out of him.

It was only because Max had not chosen to move a single inch that the rest of them remained standing still. Though, from the way Uhtred kept smiling at them as if he were simply watching an uninteresting play, they looked like they would soon forget about Max entirely and rush him.

Max himself simply stared at Uhtred, keeping his posture perfectly composed. He noted the easy, completely unbothered confidence the young man possessed. The volume of their numbers didn’t seem to faze him in the slightest.

And it wasn’t just Uhtred. The girl standing next to him was staring back at each of them, but there was no look of urgency or wariness in her deep blue eyes whatsoever.

Instead, she looked as if she were analyzing them for a completely different purpose, her mind entirely removed from the immediate tension in the room. Her gaze lingered on their gear and their stance as if she were cataloging specimens rather than facing a potential threat.

Even the rest of Uhtred’s cre, the two older men and the young woman resting against the stone wall, looked as if they didn’t have a single care in the world.

The resting girl in particular had only opened her eyes once, right when they first entered the floor. Since then, she hadn’t even bothered to look at them again, keeping her eyelids firmly shut.

In fact, a clear look of irritation was visible in her heavy frown, as if the entire group were simply a loud, annoying nuisance disturbing her rest.

It wasn’t just Max who noticed this unnatural display of calm. The smarter, more observant individuals among their ranks had also picked up on the weird peace radiating from Uhtred’s crew. It defied the basic logic of a confrontation.

A normal group facing an angry twenty-man team would be showing some level of wariness and unease, attempting to negotiate from a position of weakness.

These people, on the other hand, were acting as if they were waiting for a minor inconvenience to pass.

Coupled with the fact that Max wasn’t particularly eager to resort to a bloody violence that could cost him valuable men, he raised a single hand to silence the louder voices in his ranks.

The rowdy men looked highly unwilling, their faces flushed with rage, but they still obeyed the simple gesture from their leader. They went quiet in an instant, though the tight clenching of their jaws and their intense glares made it obvious they were still itching for a fight.

Max shifted his entire approach, asking Uhtred a surprising question instead.

"Are you an enemy of humanity?"

Uhtred raised a brow, genuinely amused by the sudden, dramatic pivot.

"I have to ask," Max continued, "because your claim over this dungeon directly threatens the survival of our species. We are in a war for our literal existence against prehistoric human variants, and you are choosing this exact moment to isolate a vital asset."

He took a step forward, his eyes easy and steady.

"I don’t know you, but my first impression is that you are a reasonable man. You would agree with me that taking control of a resource meant for an entire region is equivalent to stifling the growth of everyone who would have otherwise had free access to this place, would you not?" he asked.

The logic was clean and well-delivered, clearly designed to appeal to Uhtred’s sense of morality and place the collective weight of human survival squarely on his shoulders.

But Uhtred only shrugged in response.

"And who said anything about limiting access?" he met Max’s gaze dead-on, his voice completely flat. "Floors 1 to 10 of this dungeon are going to be free for anyone who wants to grind. Floors 11 and below will simply require a small fee."

"Isn’t that the definition of limiting access?" Max countered immediately, his brow furrowing. "Why do you get to force everyone to pay for something that should be fundamentally free? Who gave you the right to put a price tag on our progression?"

"You’re going to have to take that one up with the System, man," Uhtred said with a slight, casual shrug.

"I cleared the dungeon, and my reward was the dungeon core, which gives me absolute control over this dungeon. If you have a problem with that, you can either find a way to take it from me, or go find another regional dungeon and claim its core yourself."

Max’s eyes widened immediately, and even the members of his group went rigid, though they tried not to let it show.

Uhtred had said it so casually, but the implications of his words were immediately apparent.

This dungeon had 20 floors. Uhtred was explicitly stating that the method to claim ownership was to obtain a core on the final floor of the dungeon itself.

In other words, he was telling them that he and his tiny crew had successfully slaughtered their way through all twenty floors and taken the core for themselves!

Uhtred saw the looks of concealed shock on their faces as their eyes swept over him reassessingly.

The Italian man who had been barking the loudest went entirely quiet, his mouth opening slightly as a deep disbelief settled in his eyes. Max himself looked stunned, his hands stiffening slightly at his sides.

It was as if their minds simply couldn’t comprehend the possibility of someone being at such a vastly higher level already.

Max, the leader of this entire gathering, was a Level 7. Among all the sectors they had crossed on their journey here, his level had remained firmly cemented as the absolute top tier. He was a god among men in their eyes.

They had internalized the idea that Max was among the highest-ranking human beings alive on the planet right now. They hadn’t met a single person superior to him.

To hear Uhtred imply a level gap so vast, wide, and deep that it felt like an unbridgeable chasm made their instincts want to reject his words immediately.

A few of the men in the back snorted, and some even chuckled in forced disbelief, trying to break the heavy silence settling over them.

But Max didn’t join in on the scoffing laughter. He looked entirely serious, his sharp, assessing gaze focused on Uhtred’s calm face.

Hmm... This guy is actually smart and level-headed, Uhtred noted internally.

Seeing the grim, deadly serious look on their leader’s face, the individuals who were about to burst into another round of mocking words quickly lowered their voices, staring back at Uhtred with wide, suddenly fearful eyes.

Could it truly be that this young guy was a powerhouse capable of clearing the 20th floor of a dungeon?

How was that even possible? What kind of monstrous, legendary talent did someone need to reach those heights already?

It had only been four days since the integration itself began. They had clearly seen Max push himself to the absolute limit just to hit Level 7, even losing people along the way.

To think someone was already operating in a completely different realm of numbers felt unbelievable.

Uhtred, seeing that he now had their attention, and that a deep wariness had replaced their initial arrogance, spoke up calmly:

"Before you go around parading your sense of moral superiority, trying to enforce your ideas of right and wrong on me, you should at least possess the strength to back it up. You need to know exactly who you are talking to."

His voice was entirely flat, devoid of any particular emotion.

"The world is no longer the same. You used a word earlier... ’illegal.’ You said my claim over this dungeon is illegal."

Uhtred paused, staring pointedly at Max.

"Illegal to whom? To you? Your law? Or whose law, exactly?"