"One to raise the strong… and weed out the rest."
The world didn't breathe.
Then the voice returned—steady, smooth, and impossibly vast.
"From this point forward, growth alone will not guarantee survival."
"This is not a defense. Not a delay. Not a question of 'if.'"
"This is the beginning."
A sound followed—not loud, not sharp. Just a low vibration, almost like a hum. It moved beneath the soles of their feet, rippling through stone, root, and blood. The forest itself seemed to pause to listen.
Above them, the sky pulsed once—rings of light too clean to be natural expanding like ripples in water. Not clouds. Not energy. System markers, cast in visible light across the world for all who could see.
[Global Sync Achieved.]
A map appeared briefly in the air, transparent and massive—ghostlike in its scale. It showed outlines of land masses and hexagonal nodes blinking across them.
"Territories recognized: seventy-one."
Jin's eyes narrowed slightly.
