I Killed the Hero and Took His Achievements-Chapter 43: System Error: Infinite Ammunition Glitch

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[Location: The Star-Forge - Engineering Bay]

[Status: Breaking the Laws of Thermodynamics] 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Physics is just a mere knowledge, Sparky." I stood over the holographic blueprint table.

Sparky was hyperventilating into a paper bag. His robotic arm was shuddering uncontrollably as he looked at the schematic diagram I had drawn. "Boss... Boss, please listen to reason!"

Sparky whined while throwing the bag aside. "You can’t just connect the Output directly to the Input! That’s like a Perpetual Motion Machine! That violates the First Law of Thermodynamics!"

"Well, the thing is, I repealed that law," I said calmly. I pointed at the two massive components that were hovering in the center of the bay that were suspended by anti-gravity fields.

On the left: The Star-Forge Core. A blue pulsating sphere of Atlantean magic. It could print matter, but it needed an immense energy.

On the right: The Aether Converter. The engine part I looted from the Slime Queen. It generated power, but it needed fuel to convert.

"Connect them both," I ordered.

"If I connect them both," Sparky explained while his voice was trembling with an engineering terror, "The Converter will try to power the Forge, and the Forge will try to print fuel for the Converter. It creates a feedback loop! It will spin until it reaches critical mass and turns this entire ocean into a supernova!"

"Exactly," I grinned viciously. "A critical mass."

"That’s bad! Critical mass is bad!"

"Not if we remove the limit."

I walked up to the components. The heat was intense, and the air smelled like burning air and magic. "Sylvia," I called out.

The Ice Dragonkin stepped forward. She was wearing her lab coat over her scale armor. She looked professional, dangerous, and slightly turned on by the levels of mana in the room. "Yes, Master?"

"I need you to freeze the connection point. Make it so that it becomes a superconductor."

"Understood."

Sylvia raised her hands, then her eyes glowed white. [Skill: Absolute Zero.] She focused a beam of cold onto the space between the two cores, the air froze solid, and the temperature dropped to -273.15°C.

"Now," I looked at Sparky wickedly. "Weld it."

"Yes, boss!"

CLANG. The two cores whacked together. ZZZZZTTTTT. Sparks of every color flew across the room. The ground shook, and the lights flickered.

The machine began to screech. It was a high-pitched screech of energy that was currently building up with nowhere to go.

[System Warning: Energy Overflow.]

[Capacity: 100%... 200%... 500%...]

[Critical Failure Imminent in 10 seconds.]

"It’s gonna blow!" Sparky dove behind a crate. "I told you so! It’s a detonation bomb!"

"It’s only a detonation bomb if you let it detonate," I said.

I walked up to the screaming machine, then I placed my hand directly on the fusion point. My skin seared by the immense energy, and it was trying to tear me apart. But I didn’t pull back. I activated my cheat.

[Skill: Infinite Growth (Active).]

Usually, this skill applies to my stats. It allows me to level up without a cap, but what happens if I apply it to a machine? "System," I commanded, my voice bursted over the siren. "Override Logic Gate."

[System Accessing...]

"Define ’Fuel Limit’."

[Fuel Limit: 100,000 Units.]

"Remove the value."

[Error. Value cannot be null.]

"Then set the value to ’Infinite Growth’."

[Processing...]

[Logic Error: ’Infinite’ is not a valid integer.]

[Attempting to Reconcile...]

The machine’s screeching pitch went even higher. It was confused, and was trying to calculate a number that didn’t exist.

I pushed my mana into it. My mana was the virus, it carried the concept of the void. "Devour," I whispered to the machine. "Devour the concept of void."

[System Resolution: Limit Removed.]

[Energy Source: Undefined (∞).]

The shrieking and shaking stopped out of the blue, then the machine began to vibrate. It wasn’t a violent vibration. Instead, it was a smooth and terrifyingly quiet hum. The readout on the console started to flicker a reading.

[Energy Output: ∞.]

Sparky peeked out from behind the crate. He looked at the screen, then wiped his goggles, and looked again. "Infinity?" he muttered. "That’s... that’s not possible!"

"It’s our ammunition," I responded him.

I patted the new core like a new kitten. "Install this into the HMS Profit Margin immediately."

"But Boss! We don’t have weapons that can handle infinite energy! The railguns will instantly melt!"

"Then strip the railguns," I ordered. I pulled up a holographic blueprint. I had erased the projectile loading mechanism, ammunition storage, and the cooling vents. I had drew a single straight line from the core to the emitter. "Make it a Beam."

"A beam?"

"A continuous, non-stop and localized projection of pure massacre." I smiled heinously. "I call it the Omega Beam."

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[Location: HMS Profit Margin]

[Time: 2 Hours Later]

The ship was ready to depart. It floated in the center of the underwater hangar. The new core was successfully installed, and the ship hummed with a power that was enough to make the world disappear.

I sat in the Captain’s Throne.

Marina sat at the Navigation control center. Her new Void-Mermaid form was perfectly adapted to the ship’s interface, she sat perfectly to her designated seat, and her black tail twitched with excitement.

"Engine status: Online," she reported. Her voice was echoing with a dark resonance. "Energy levels are... stable at maximum."

"Weapons?"

Sparky was at the tactical station. He looked like a kid on Christmas who had just been given a nuclear weapon. "Omega Beam is calibrated, Boss. We have enough power to boil this entire ocean."

"Let’s not boil our own base," I said. "Take us up."

"Aye, Captain!"

The ship moved up. It didn’t use thrusters, but it used gravity manipulation. With infinite energy, we didn’t need to burn fuel to move.

WHOOSH. We shot out of the underwater hangar, and broke to the surface of the ocean. Water cascaded off the black hull. We finally ascended into the sky, hovering at 30,000 feet. The sky was blue, and the sun was shining bright.

"Target practice," I announced.

"What are we shooting?" Ahri asked while looking out the window. "Clouds?"

"No." I pointed at the radar.

[Sonar Contact: Large Biological Mass.]

[Altitude: 40,000 feet (Mesosphere).]

[Type: Star-Whale.]

"Whales?" Seraphina blinked. "Space Whales?"

"They hovered through the upper atmosphere to feed on solar radiation," I explained. "They are massive, durable, and full of XP."

"But... they’re peaceful," Seraphina protested. "They don’t attack anyone. They’re majestic creatures of the sky!"

I looked at Seraphina viciously. "They are floating XP pinatas."

"Boss! That’s evil!"

"Evil is efficient. Besides, I need to test the heat dispersion, if the gun melts, it better happens now than when we fight the Interstellar Fleet." I turned to Sparky. "Target the Alpha."

"Target locked!"

The viewscreen zoomed in. High above us, swimming through the thin air, there was a group of Star-Whales. They were beautiful. Massive, bioluminescent creatures that looked like galaxies given flesh. The Alpha was the size of a city block. It hummed a low melodious symphony that vibrated through the ship’s hull. Oooooooo....

"It’s singing," Sylvia noted softly. "It’s beautiful."

"It’s noisy," I grunted. "Charge the Omega Beam."

The ship began to vibrate. The front of the HMS Profit Margin opened up like a jaw. A ball of white light began to form. It wasn’t fire nor lightning, but it was a raw unadulterated Aether. The light grew brighter, brighter than the sun. The clouds around the ship were evaporated instantly.

[Energy Charge: 100%.]

[Warning: Energy Charge continuing... 200%... 500%...]

"Boss?" Sparky warned. "The capacitors are grumbling."

"Let it buzz," I said.

I looked at the Whale. It was just floating there while eating sunlight and was unaware that death was pointing a finger at it. "Conservation of energy?" I muttered to myself. I put my finger on the trigger. "I repealed that law."

FIRE. There was no sound. The beam moved faster than sound. A lance of pure white erasure shot from the ship. It didn’t look like a laser, but it looked like someone had taken an eraser to the fabric of reality. The beam connected with the Star-Whale. There was no explosion.

The Whale didn’t scream nor bleed. It simply to be ceased. One moment, there was a majestic creature at the size of a city. The next moment, there was nothing. The beam didn’t stop there. It kept going. It pierced the atmosphere, the space, and it probably hit a moon in another solar system.

I released the trigger. The beam vanished. The sky was empty. A perfect, circular tunnel had been carved through the clouds, stretching into infinity.

Silence returned on the bridge.

Ahri’s mouth gapped open. "Where... where did it go?"

"Gone," I said. "Reduced to atoms."

[System Notification]

[You have slain a Star-Whale Alpha (Level 60).]

[You have slain Star-Whale (Level 55) x 12.]

[Wait... did you just kill 12?]

I checked the replay.

The beam was so wide that it had instantly vanished the entire group behind the Alpha.

[Experience Gained: Massive.]

[Level Up: 42 -> 43.]

[Level Up: 43 -> 44.]

[Loot Obtained: Star-Dust x 500 tons.]

[Loot Obtained: Whale Oil (Legendary) x 100 barrels.]

"Oops," I shrugged. "Collateral damage."

Sparky checked the weapon diagnostics.

"Heat levels?" I asked.

"Zero," Sparky muttered while looking terrified. "The beam... it didn’t generate heat. Boss, this isn’t a weapon, but a destruction."

"Good."

Seraphina was howled silently. "The poor whales... they were just swimming..."

"They were trespassing in my airspace," I said while leaning back in my throne. "And now they are lamp oil."

I looked at the loot notifications. "Star-Dust... highly conductive magic material. Whale Oil... high-grade fuel. Not bad for a test fire."

Suddenly, a red alert flashed on the console. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

"Contact!" Marina roared. "Something detected the energy spike!"

"Who?"

"High Orbit, the Foreign Blockade."

I looked at the radar viciously. A red dot was descending from the grid.

[Target: Interstellar Scout Corvette.]

[Faction: The Hegemony.]

[Speed: Mach 10.]

"They definitely saw the beam," Sylvia said. Her eyes were narrowing. "They’re coming to investigate."

"Of course they are," I grinned wickedly.

I stood up menacingly. "Sparky. Power down the Omega Beam."

"What? But they’re attacking!"

"No. We’re not going to shoot them."

I walked to the window, then I watched the red dot was getting closer. "If we shoot them, the whole fleet will come down onto us. We aren’t ready for a full-scale war yet."

"Then what do we do?" Ahri asked while drawing her daggers.

"We play dead."

"Dead?"

"Cut the engines, make some steam, then make the ship look like a ruined wreck that was hovering in the sky. When they come to check us..." My eyes glowed with the Usurper’s light. "I’m going to board their ship."

"Alone?" Sylvia asked.

"Alone."

I checked my inventory. I had a dagger, ring, and plan. "I’m going to steal their ship, then I’m going to send them a little gift in return."

I looked at Seraphina. "Stop crying over the whale, Saintess. Pray for the Interstellar Species."

"Why?" she sniffled miserably.

"Because," I cracked my knuckles. "They are about to meet their new management. And I don’t give them any severance packages."