A wall of polished, high-grade steel rose up to block the sun, casting a long, cold shadow over the forest floor.
Kage didn't blink. His golden eyes, steady and predatory, tracked the distorted reflections dancing on the surface of the five massive tower shields closing in on him. These weren't the snarling, predictable monsters of the woods. They weren't bloodthirsty PKs or chaotic bandits looking for a quick thrill. These were the "good guys."
"Stay perfectly still, traveler," Seraphina said. Her voice was honey-thick, dripping with a practiced, motherly authority that made the fine hairs on Kage's bare arms stand up in a primal rejection. "We are the Shield of Grace. We simply cannot allow our fellow players to wander the Whispering Woods in such a... pitiable, exposed state."
She held out the bundle of Standard Iron Mail. The heavy links clinked together with a dull, suffocating metallic sound that seemed to absorb the ambient light.
"Pitiable?" Kage asked.
His voice was a flat, horizontal line. It carried no heat, no anger—only the cold, detached resonance of a clinical observation.
"You're Level 12," a man behind Seraphina barked, his voice muffled by a heavy visor. He was a Paladin named Boros, encased in armor so thick he looked more like a walking fortress than a human being. "But your UI shows you have 1 HP. One. That's either a catastrophic bug, or you're some kind of digital masochist. Either way, we're fixing it for you."
Boros took a heavy step forward. The damp ground groaned under the sheer weight of his equipment, mud oozing over the edges of his greaves.
"The Shield of Grace has a divine mandate," Seraphina added, her thin smile never quite reaching her cold, calculating eyes. "We maintain the 'Newbie Safety Standards' of this sector. A player running around in his underwear isn't just a distraction—it's a liability. A troll build that ruins the immersion and the safety rating for everyone else."
In the periphery of Kage's vision, the stream chat was a frantic, neon blur of conflicting opinions.
- KAREN GUILD DETECTED.
- ARE THEY REALLY GOING TO FORCE-EQUIP HIM?
- RUN KAGE! THE KINDNESS IS A TRAP!
Mia was hovering a few yards away, her fingers trembling as she clutched her staff. Her camera drone buzzed nervously, weaving between the branches to get a better angle on the confrontation.
"Um, excuse me?" Mia chirped, her voice wavering. "I'm a licensed professional streamer. Kage isn't bothering anyone. He actually just soloed an Iron-Tusk Behemoth and saved a group of—"
"Quiet, little girl," Boros snapped, not even bothering to look at her. "We're doing him a favor. This is 'Benevolent Mentoring.' Once he's properly geared and balanced, he'll thank us for saving his character from obscurity. Now, surround him! Secure the perimeter!"
The five armored players shifted in unison. It was a practiced, military maneuver.
They weren't attacking—not yet. They were "crowding." In the complex physics of Eclipse Online, if you occupied the physical space around a player, you could restrict their movement options without ever triggering a criminal PK flag. It was a legal loophole used by major guilds to "escort" or "detain" players they deemed problematic or non-compliant.
Kage felt the air tighten as the circle closed.
The [ Skin Risk ] buff hummed against his bare chest, a low-frequency vibration that told him exactly where the collision boxes were. To Kage, the world was no longer composed of trees and people; it was a mathematical grid of hitboxes and frame data.
He saw Seraphina's hand reaching out. She was attempting to initiate a "Forced Trade" or a "Gift Equip"—a feature designed for mentors to assist struggling beginners. If she touched him, a massive, translucent window would pop up in his face, obscuring 40% of his vital vision.
To Kage, that pop-up window was a death sentence.
"Don't touch me," Kage said, his voice dropping an octave.
"It's for your own good, sweetie!" Seraphina lunged, her hand grasping for his shoulder.
Kage didn't run. He didn't jump.
He simply pivoted on his left heel by a fraction of a degree.
His body blurred as if the world had dropped a frame. Seraphina's hand passed through the empty air where his shoulder had been a millisecond prior, her momentum carrying her slightly off-balance.
[ Perfect Dodge! ]
[ Frame Eater: 1 Stack. ]
The golden ripple shimmered across his pale skin, smelling faintly of ozone and static.
"He's fast!" Boros grunted, his iron boots clanking as he repositioned. "Close the wall! Don't give him a single gap to slide through!"
The five tower shields slammed together with a deafening *CLANG* that echoed through the woods.
They formed a tight pentagon of interlocking steel around Kage. The gaps between the shields were less than three inches wide—impossibly small for a human body to pass through. They began moving inward, a shrinking cage of unwanted "help."
"You have nowhere to go, kid," Seraphina said, her voice finally losing its sugary sweetness and hardening into steel. "Just accept the armor. Accept the 'Grace.' Why do you insist on being a broken outcast?"
Kage looked at the steel walls. He looked at the faces of the players peering over the rims. They looked so certain. So righteous. They truly believed they were the heroes of a story they were forcing him to play.
"Because your 'Grace' is slow," Kage said.
"What?" Seraphina blinked.
"Your armor," Kage said, pointing a pale, steady finger at Boros's ornate chest plate. "It has a weight value of 45. It reduces your animation speed by 12%. Your reaction time to a lateral strike is delayed by exactly 0.08 seconds due to the joint-friction penalty."
Kage's eyes turned a deeper, molten gold.
"To me, you aren't players," he continued, his voice devoid of all warmth. "You're just static noise. Clutter in a system that demands perfection."
"You arrogant little—!" Boros lost his temper. He didn't draw his sword, knowing the system would flag him. Instead, he used a [ Shield Bash ].
It was a non-lethal move, intended to stun and force a stagger. The massive tower shield accelerated, a wall of iron aiming to crush Kage's skull.
Kage watched the frames.
The shield had a three-frame wind-up in the shoulder. The impact zone was wide, but the follow-through was locked. He didn't duck. He stepped forward, entering the absolute "blind spot" of the shield's swing arc.
*Ping.*
[ Frame Eater: 5 Stacks. ]
Kage was now so close to Boros that he could smell the copper and stale sweat trapped inside the man's heavy helmet. Boros gasped, trying to wrench the shield back, but the physical momentum was already committed to the air.
Kage lightly tapped the rim of the tower shield with the palm of his hand.
He didn't use strength. He used the "Momentum Reversal" mechanic—a hidden quirk of the physics engine he had mastered in the practice pits.
Boros stumbled. His own massive weight, multiplied by the force of the failed bash, pulled him violently forward. For a split second, a gap opened in the shield wall.
"The gap is there!" Mia shouted to her stream, her voice cracking with excitement. "He's going for it!"
But Kage didn't leave. Not yet. He needed the stacks.
The other four members of the Shield of Grace panicked. They saw their vanguard stumbling and began to spam "Benevolent Binding" spells—prismatic white ribbons of light that sought to wrap around the target's limbs like magical silk.
"Don't let him escape! Bind him!" Seraphina yelled.
Kage began to dance.
It was a performance of pure, distilled insanity. He didn't run away from the ribbons. He stayed in the dead center of the pentagon, weaving through the glowing coils of magic as if they were nothing more than light.
A ribbon flew at his waist; he arched his back like a seasoned gymnast. Another sought his ankles; he performed a microscopic, frame-perfect hop. A third aimed for his neck; he tilted his head by exactly one centimeter.
*Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.*
[ Frame Eater: 10 Stacks... 20 Stacks... 35 Stacks... ]
The golden light under Kage's skin was becoming a roar. The air around him began to distort, the sheer heat from the [ Skin Risk ] buff creating a shimmering, hallucinogenic haze in the clearing.
"Stop him!" Seraphina screamed. She was no longer smiling. Her face was twisted with the realization that she was being humiliated in front of a global audience. "He's mocking us! He's mocking the Grace!"
"I'm not mocking you," Kage's voice drifted through the chaos, sounding as if it came from everywhere at once. "I'm using you as a metronome."
To Kage, the Shield of Grace was the perfect training dummy. Their movements were sluggishly predictable, their "kindness" was a series of automated scripts, and their hitboxes were massive and clunky.
He was farming them for resonance.
[ Frame Eater: 50 Stacks. ]
The golden aura erupted into a pillar of light. The forest floor beneath Kage's bare feet cracked under the sudden pressure of the buff.
"Enough," Kage said.
He moved.
He didn't draw his dagger. He didn't need to. He simply struck the center of Seraphina's shield with two fingers.
With 50 stacks of [ Frame Eater ], the force of the strike was equivalent to a structural battering ram. The shield didn't break, but the kinetic energy transferred through the metal was absolute. Seraphina was launched backward, her heavy boots carving deep, jagged ruts in the dirt before she slammed into a massive oak tree with a bone-jarring thud.
[ Warning: You have initiated combat with a Non-Aggressive player. ]
[ Current Status: YELLOW (Caution). ]
"He hit her! He actually struck a Mentor!" Boros roared, his face turning purple. "He's a Red Player in the making! Kill him! For the sanctity of the Grace!"
The "mentors" drew their swords in unison. The pretense of help was gone. The masks of kindness had slipped, revealing the jagged edge of a lynching.
Kage felt a cold, sharp thrill he hadn't experienced in years.
This was the "High-Risk" he craved. Five armored players, all Level 20 or higher, against one naked boy with a single point of health.
"Mia," Kage called out, his eyes never leaving the blades.
"Y-yeah?" Mia was frantically trying to keep her camera drone focused on the golden blur.
"Turn off the safety filters on the stream," Kage said. "I don't want the viewers to miss a single frame of the impact."
"Safety filters? But Kage, the gore settings for the public feed—"
"Do it now."
Mia swallowed hard, her heart hammering against her ribs, and tapped her UI.
The stream viewers gasped as the colors on their screens became sharper, more visceral. They could see the individual sparks of grinding steel, the sweat on Boros's brow, and the terrifying, empty void in Kage's golden eyes.
Boros lunged with a [ Holy Strike ]. His claymore was a towering pillar of white flame.
Kage didn't dodge to the side. He ran up the sword.
He stepped on the flat of the glowing blade, his bare feet ignoring the heat of the holy fire. He used the upward momentum to launch himself into the air, spinning over Boros's head like a ghost. While inverted in mid-air, he tapped the exposed back of Boros's neck.
*Ping.*
[ Frame Eater: 70 Stacks. ]
Kage landed silently behind the group. He was now positioned between them and the deep, forbidden forest.
"Your 'Grace' is heavy," Kage said, his back to them. "It's a cage you built for yourselves because you're afraid of the world's variables."
He turned his head slightly, the golden light from his skin casting long, jagged shadows against the ancient trees.
"I don't need your protection," Kage said. "Because in this world, there is nothing that can touch a man who isn't there."
Seraphina struggled to her feet, her silver armor dented and her pride shattered. She looked at the stream counter on her own HUD and turned pale.
300,000 viewers.
The Shield of Grace was being laughed at by the entire server. They were the punchline to the "Naked Ninja's" first true legend.
"You... you're a monster," she hissed, her voice trembling. "You're a glitch that needs to be erased from the server. We'll report you! We'll hunt you across every zone! You'll never be able to enter a city again!"
Kage looked at the dark, monster-infested woods behind him.
"Then I'll stay in the dark," he said. "The monsters are more honest than your 'Grace' ever was."
He signaled to Mia. "We're leaving. Keep up if you want the exclusive."
"Right!" Mia shouted, her silver hair flying as she sprinted toward him.
Kage grabbed Mia's hand—not for comfort, but for synchronization. He activated [ Instant Move ].
With his agility buffed by [ Skin Risk ] and his stacks sitting at 70, the world didn't just blur. It vanished. In a heartbeat, Kage and Mia were gone, leaving only a cloud of dust and five humiliated "mentors" in the silent clearing.
[ Status Changed: Isolated. ]
[ Reputation with 'The Shield of Grace': HATED. ]
They ran for miles, the wind whistling past their ears. Kage didn't slow down until the sunlight could no longer penetrate the thick, black canopy of the Deep Woods. This was the "Forbidden Zone," an area designed for players Level 30 and above.
The air here was different. It felt heavy, saturated with raw mana and the metallic scent of ancient blood.
Kage stopped by a black-water stream that bubbled over dark stones. He finally let go of Mia's hand. The golden light faded from his skin, leaving him pale and shivering. He sat down on a mossy rock, his breath perfectly even.
Mia, however, collapsed onto the grass, gasping for air. Her camera drone hovered tiredly above her head.
"Kage..." she wheezed. "You... you're insane. You really just declared war on the biggest beginner guild in the game."
"They were in the way of the frames," Kage said.
"They weren't just in the way! They were the 'general public'!" Mia sat up, wiping sweat from her forehead. "You realize what this means, right? You can't go back to Aethelgard. You're an outlaw now. A 'Naked Outlaw'."
Kage looked at his reflection in the black water. He saw a boy with white hair and golden eyes staring back. He saw a stranger.
"I never belonged in the city anyway," Kage said.
He opened his menu.
[ New Quest Detected: The Shadow of the Great Orc. ]
[ Difficulty: RANK S (Lethal). ]
[ Objective: Eliminate the Ruler of the Whispering Woods without taking a single hit. ]
Kage felt a small, genuine spark of joy in his chest. This was it. No more mentors. No more "Grace." Just him, his 1 HP, and a world that wanted him dead.
"Mia," Kage said.
"Yeah?"
"How many people are watching?"
Mia checked her drone. Her eyes went wide. "450,000," she whispered. "And the number is still climbing. Kage... you're not just a player anymore. You're a 'Content God.' People are calling you the 'Ghost of the Frames'."
Kage stood up, his gaze fixing on the dark forest.
In the distance, a roar echoed that made the very ground tremble. It wasn't the Behemoth. It was something deeper. Something that sounded like a mountain grinding against a mountain.
The Great Orc was near.
"Good," Kage said. "Tell them to keep watching."
He drew his rusted dagger. The blade looked even smaller and more pathetic in the oppressive darkness of the deep woods.
"Tell them the 'Ghost' is about to start the real hunt."
But as he spoke, a notification popped up in his private messages. It wasn't from a fan. It wasn't from the Shield of Grace.
[ From: LEON ]
[ Message: I'm at the Boss arena. Don't die to a trash mob before you get here. I want to see if your 'frames' can handle a real player's blade. ]
Kage's eyes narrowed, the gold within them flaring. The rival was already there. The efficiency-obsessed "Shadow Blade" was waiting.
"Leon," Kage muttered.
He didn't reply. He didn't need to. He stepped into the shadows, his body already beginning to pulse with a new, hungry light.
[ Frame Eater: 0 Stacks. ]
[ Goal: 100 Stacks. ]
The real game was finally beginning. And for the first time, Kage felt like the 1 HP bar wasn't a curse. It was a crown.
"Let's go, Mia," Kage said, disappearing into the undergrowth. "We have a God to kill."
The camera drone followed him, its lens capturing the image of a boy who had traded everything—reputation, safety, and clothes—for a single, impossible dream.
To be the one who never gets hit.