Max's journey takes a dark turn immediately after his first major victory in the goblin dungeon. After wiping out the initial wave of monsters, Max sits in a quiet corner to absorb seven cores, reaching level one. He then decides to test his second class skill, the Dimension of Time. This skill transports his consciousness to an endless white void where one hour in the real world equals a full year of training. Max spends three grueling years in this isolation, repeatedly casting his Magic Bullets skill until he raises it to level ten. However, when his consciousness returns to his physical body, he finds himself surrounded by ten level-one goblins. His classmates, led by Carl, have abandoned him to die as a setup. Max easily destroys the horde with ten simultaneous magic bullets, but the betrayal hardens his heart. He catches up to the group at the goblin village, where he demands all the loot from the monsters he kills in exchange for saving his struggling peers, Zixi, William, and Henry. After securing his cores, Max isolates himself again to train his Basic Sword Arts to level twenty over four virtual years. When he returns to the physical world, a level-four masked assassin ambushes him. Max uses his newly acquired Swift Dash and a concentrated ten-bullet fusion blast to disarm the killer. Just as Max demands answers, a second assassin appears, holding his best friend Nevin hostage with a dagger pressed to his throat. Max reacts instantly, firing a blue beam that pierces the hostage-taker's head while slashing his own captive. But the victory is hollow. Nevin has already been mortally wounded, a massive gaping hole torn into his back. Nevin dies in Max's arms, his lifeless eyes fueling a deep, venomous hatred inside Max. The assassins' final words reveal their employers—the powerful Blade Family. Max stores Nevin's corpse in his spatial storage, clenching his fists with a cold resolve to grow strong enough to annihilate the entire clan.

To secure a recommendation for the Phoenix Order, Max travels to the chaotic Outer Circle to enter the Burning Wilds dungeon. His goal is to find a fire-element skill in a legendary hidden chamber. Near the portal, he encounters Alice and Amy, two high-status geniuses disguised as regular hunters. Inside the charred forest, Max easily defeats level-six lava wolves and lava birds, absorbing their cores to reach level four. His omniscient Three Dimensional Body skill soon detects a standoff between a level-eight lava wolf pack and a level-nine lava serpent guarding a mysterious cave. Max watches as Alice and Amy use an invisibility artifact to sneak past the beasts. To disrupt their plans, Max fires a magic bullet that collapses the cave entrance, trapping the girls inside. He then engages the beasts. The level-eight lava wolf proves exceptionally troublesome, regenerating its head from molten magma until Max completely disintegrates its skull with a magic bullet. The level-nine lava serpent, terrified of Max's power, surrenders and leads him to a river of black lava flowing with strange black flames. Here, Max faces a level-ten black dragon that transforms into a pitch-black, white-haired old master. The master easily overpowers Max, shattering his sword, but teaches him a vital lesson—his swordsmanship lacks intent. Max enters a state of sudden enlightenment, realizing his blade must become an extension of his will. He comprehends the edge of Sword Intent, deflecting the master's final strike. The old man vanishes into the cave, leaving Max to discover a black-and-gold human skeleton overflowing with black flames. When Max touches the remains, the skeleton locks him in a death grip, forcing black flames into his body. Max endures hours of excruciating agony, feeling as if molten nails are driving into his bones, before successfully fusing with the Black Dragon Chaotic Bloodline. He gains ten draconic essences and two dragon scales, giving him the ability to unleash raw, physical shockwaves that shake the entire forest.

Max exits the inheritance cave and encounters Alice and Amy, who have successfully harvested the rare Eight Petal Flaming Lotus and thousands of mana crystals. Max leverages his hidden strength to strike a bet with Alice—if he can block three of her attacks without using the level-nine lava serpent, she must give him a portion of the crystals and recommend him to the Phoenix Order. Alice launches six curving, blazing arrows, but Max uses his level-one-hundred Flurry Strike to release six precise sword shadows, neutralizing the projectiles mid-air. He then blocks her sword strike effortlessly. Alice yields, throwing him a storage ring filled with mana crystals. However, their triumph is short-lived. Upon reaching the Storm Canyon leading to the boss chamber, they find the ground littered with the mutilated corpses of other hunters. The infamous Bouncer Squad, a group of level-ten cowards who refuse to advance ranks, ambushes them. Morel Lokus activates a high-tier runestone powered by an Adept-rank blood sacrifice, pinning Max, Alice, and Amy to the canyon wall with an inescapable gravitational force. While Alice despairs, Max taps into the power of seven draconic essences. Raging physical strength surges through his veins, allowing him to defy the gravity field. He raises his hands and fires a precise magic bullet that blasts the runestone out of Morel's grip. Before the squad can recover, Max unleashes his level-one-hundred Magic Bullets skill, summoning hundreds of glowing blue orbs that rain down like a relentless laser barrage. The projectiles pierce the Bouncers, leaving them riddled with holes. Max then uses his black flames to devour the fallen runestone, absorbing its residual energy to grow a second dragon scale. Just as the squad dies, a mysterious invisible observer mocks Max from the shadows, revealing that he knows Max's secrets before vanishing. Max shrugs off the threat, enters the boss chamber, and kills the level-five Salamander boss in a single hit with a football-sized fused magic bullet, securing an Uncommon-rank Infernal Coating skill.

Upon exiting the Burning Wilds, Max faces immediate danger as the Lionheart Guild arrives to investigate the Bouncer Squad's demise. Nash and Erica use the legendary Lantern of Purple Death, a magical artifact that reveals a killer's identity when their blood is mixed with its purple flames. When Erica cuts Max's hand, Max uses his Three Dimensional Body to infuse a wisp of black flame into his blood drops, successfully neutralizing the lantern's detection. After passing the test, Max retreats to the Phoenix Order guild. He spends a full week in the real world—which translates to nearly 168 years of agonizing, mind-numbing isolation in his Dimension of Time—to raise his newly acquired skills, including Flame Creation and Ten Directional Shield, to level one hundred. To strike back at his mortal enemies, Max enters the virtual Battle Realm under his public name, Max Morgan. He goes on a ruthless eleven-game winning streak, climbing into the top twenty of the Novice Rankings. He then issues a massive, public challenge to the undisputed number one fighter, Killian Blade. The entire East Region gathers around giant holographic screens to watch the highly anticipated duel. On a vast grassy plain, Killian condenses raging winds and blue lightning into a massive, crackling sword projection. But Max's centuries of training have made him a monster. Activating his Three Dimensional Body and six draconic essences, Max coats his index finger in red flames and level-one Sword Aura, effortlessly blocking Killian's ultimate lightning strike with a single digit. Max systematically dismantles and tortures the arrogant genius, refusing to deliver a quick death to maximize the Blade Family's public humiliation. Max's brutal victory leaves the Blade Family elders seething in silent fury, setting off a massive political storm across the continent as Max prepares to uncover the truth behind his family's disappearance.