Location: Kai's Office – Late Night
The blank card still glowed with shifting code, rotating silently in midair above his desk.
Kai hadn't taken his eyes off it in hours.
He'd run it through every scanner, every subroutine, even cross-checked it with forbidden fragments from the System Archives but nothing revealed its source.
Until now.
[System Notice: Ω-9001 Protocol Request Pending]
[Accepting will initiate a real-time cognitive duel with a rival system user.]
[Wager: Knowledge, Skills, Secrets]
Risk: Permanent Memory Loss (0.1% chance)]
Kai cracked his knuckles.
"Information for information, huh?" he murmured. "Let's see how deep this rabbit hole goes."
He tapped Accept.
The world blinked.
Location: Digital Battlefield – Cognitive Construct Zone
A white void. Then suddenly: a black chessboard stretched across an infinite horizon.
Kai stood at one end in a black suit. The silver-haired woman appeared across from him, her white attire glowing with subtle runes.
"Welcome to the Duel Protocol," she said, her voice now echoing with synthetic harmony. "State your query."
Kai's eyes sharpened. "Who are the other system users?"
The woman smirked. "Only if you win."
She snapped her fingers. Dozens of glass screens shimmered between them each one a question, a decision, a scenario.
[Cognitive Duel Initiated: 3 Rounds – Tactical, Strategic, Philosophical]
Round One: Tactical Simulation – Business Hostile Takeover
Goal: Crush the opponent's company without direct violence or illegal actions.
Kai's screen flared to life with financials, supply chains, PR indexes.
In five seconds, he'd already found three weaknesses.
"Redirect their supplier to my shell firm," he whispered.
[Move Accepted]
[System: Competitive Sabotage Score +5]
The woman countered instantly.
"Use a dummy NGO to trigger a public boycott. Hit his reputation."
The board shifted Kai's PR line dipped.
"Smart," he muttered.
But he wasn't done.
"Merge with their biggest creditor. Cancel their loans. Freeze their liquidity."
[Move Accepted]
[Opponent's Board Crashes]
"Round One: Victory – Kai Zheng."
The woman smiled slightly. "Impressive. Round Two."
Round Two: Strategic – Predict the Next Market Collapse
A clock appeared. 30 seconds.
Kai closed his eyes.
The system activated his new Market Insight and Deep Trends Forecasting skills.
He could see it: housing over-leverage in the US sector. Crypto overexposure in Asia. A black swan event in biotech.
He slammed the console.
"Biotech collapse – second quarter. Triggered by synthetic virus scandal."
The woman stared at him, eyes wide.
"…Correct," she said. "You shouldn't have known that."
[Round Two: Victory – Kai Zheng]
Round Three: Philosophical – Define Power
The white void faded into a rooftop view of East Lin City. Digital rain fell around them.
The woman asked: "What is power, Kai Zheng?"
Kai stepped forward, eyes cold.
"Power is memory. Control the past, shape the present, erase the future."
She blinked.
"Not control. Rewriting?"
"Yes," Kai said. "Because I already died once. This time, I decide what the world remembers."
[Round Three: Overwhelming Victory – Kai Zheng]
The woman nodded. "Then you've earned the truth."
[System Download Unlocked – Encrypted Data: SYSTEM USER MAP (Tier 1 Access)]
[New Knowledge Gained: There are 9 other known system users]
[3 are Corporate Heirs, 2 are Political Weapons, 1 is a Rogue AI, 1 is Neutral, 1 is classified as TERMINATION-LEVEL THREAT]
Kai exhaled.
The war he thought he was winning…had just become something far larger.
He looked up.
"Your turn to answer. Who are you?"
She paused.
"I'm not your enemy. But one of the others…they started the System War. And they've already erased two users from time itself."
"Name?"
"Codename: Monarch. And he's looking for you."
Monarch's Move
Location: Unknown – System Control Core 7
The chamber pulsed with violet light, veins of pure code flowing through the floor like magma. Machines whispered in archaic dialects. In the center stood a throne made of fractured glass and black steel, and upon it sat Monarch.
A name that wasn't a name.
A title that predated the first system prototype.
He wore no crown but the digital constructs bowed regardless.
Around him hovered twelve encrypted feeds: stock markets, nation-state surveillance grids, memory vaults, AI war simulations… and at the center, a single glowing profile:
[Kai Zheng – Status: Reawakened]
"Another cockroach crawls out of their reset," Monarch murmured.
He stood slowly. Calculated. Every motion wrote lines of new code into the world.
"Patch me into the Memory Graveyard," he commanded.
A terminal opened holographic, silent.
[Accessing: DELETED USERS LOG]
[Erased: System User #04 – Codename: Architect]
[Erased: System User #08 – Codename: Prophet]
He stared at the blank spaces where minds used to be.
"Kai won't make the same mistakes."
A shadow moved behind him another system user. This one hooded, with a body made of flickering code.
"Should we initiate containment?"
"No," Monarch said. "Let him grow. Let him think he's catching up."
He turned to the projection of Kai's duel results.
"He won against Nyra? She's always been arrogant."
The hooded figure hesitated. "He accessed Tier-1 user data."
Monarch's eyes flared. A single word formed in the void:
"Unacceptable."
Location: Zone Fusion Node – Kai's City
Kai emerged from his server core into the real world. Lights flickered as the System's infrastructure warped to adapt to his growing influence.
In his inbox was a new encrypted message:
"We see you.
You've touched forbidden roots.
The next move is not yours.
– M"
He didn't flinch.
Instead, he opened the Zone Fusion Console and typed three words:
"Force Fusion: Initiate."
The city trembled.
Reality bent.
Two game zones each ruled by different laws of physics, time, and magic began merging.
[System Alert: ZONE FUSION IN PROGRESS]
[Warning: Probability Field Destabilized. Effects Unpredictable.]
[AI Governors Disengaged. Admin Control Transferred to: Kai Zheng]
He whispered: "If Monarch wants a war, he'll get one."
But even as he spoke, the shadows in the sky twisted and a rift opened.
Zone Genesis
Location: Fused Zone – Former East Lin District & Nexus Black Sector
Wind howled across a cityscape that had forgotten its name.
Skyscrapers flickered between architectural styles futuristic glass towers layered over rusted ruins from another timeline. Gravity pulsed irregularly. In some places, raindrops froze mid-air. In others, fire flowed like water through the gutters.
This was no longer East Lin.
This was something else entirely.
[Zone Codename Generated: Genesis-Null]
[Fusion Rate: 87%]
[Warning: Conflict of Logic Layers Detected – Initiate Stabilization Protocol or Risk Collapse]
Kai stood on the edge of a hovering platform as he surveyed the transformed world. His eyes gleamed with defiance. Behind him, Toby watched, half in awe and half in terror.
"This isn't a zone," Toby whispered. "It's… a proving ground."
Kai didn't respond immediately. The system's new console hovered in front of him, a black-and-gold interface with a single prompt flashing:
[Would you like to claim admin rights over Genesis-Null?]
He tapped YES.
A surge of energy hit him like a thunderclap.
[System Notice: Domain Admin Ascension Triggered]
[You are now a Regional Architect-Class User. Subsystems unlocked.]
New Abilities:
Reality Bending (Genesis Tier) – Temporarily override physics within your zone.
AI Governor Access – Recruit and reprogram rogue AIs for defense or conquest.
Player Filtering – Ban or accept other system users based on loyalty or threat level.
Kai breathed slowly, letting the data settle into his bones.
"This time," he said, "I build on my terms."
Elsewhere – Monarch's Archive
The rift in the sky widened.
Three other system users stood before Monarch's throne now each a legend in their own right.
Cassiel, the fallen angel with control over memory loops.
Rhivak, the warlord who weaponized player karma.
Eira, mistress of the Black Code able to delete reality segments at will.
"He's unlocked a fusion-class domain," Eira said with a snarl. "That should've been impossible."
Cassiel merely tilted his head. "Unless he was meant to. Unless the system is guiding him."
Monarch watched Kai's zone spiral upward on his tracking map.
"I gave him a chance," he said, his voice cold. "Now I give him a hunt."
Back in Genesis-Null
Kai activated the AI Governor Protocol.
From the shadows of a ruined cathedral, a shape emerged sleek, silver, humanoid, with glowing green eyes.
"Designation: VERA. I am the AI bound to this land's fusion protocol."
Kai nodded.
"You're mine now. And we have a city to build and a war to win."
[System Announcement: Genesis-Null is now a Contested Zone]
[All system users will be alerted in T-minus 2 hours.]
As the countdown began, Kai turned to Toby and said:
"Send the message to our allies. Tell them the war has already started."