A Cthulhu-esque fog descends, and awakened people across the world compete for rankings in the Sequence. The higher their rank, the more likely the Old Ones are to notice them, corrupt them, and drive them mad.
Lu Shoucheng awakens the Armor-Stacking System: each time he takes an attack, his defense permanently increases by 1; each Cthulhu monster he kills doubles his armor; rising in the Sequence rankings triggers the risk of “being watched.” The System advises him to rank as low as possible.
While everyone else shows off their skills, grabs points, and climbs the Sequence, he hides among the city ruins, stacking armor, picking up scraps, and pretending to be useless. The top ten big shots mistake him for an easy target and toss him into an S-rank contamination zone as bait. Three days later, he walks out unscathed, with 9,999 layers of armor.
“What Sequence are you, exactly?” the number-one-ranked fighter asks with a trembling voice.
Lu Shoucheng brushes the dust off himself. “Number 138. Oh, and that ancient god you summoned with your sacrifice... I just killed it with one punch.”
... Team up your wits so that others can't notice your own abnormalities...