Location: Genesis-Null – System Access Node
Time Until Global Broadcast: 32 minutes
Kai stood in the center of a glowing platform, the echoes of his duel with ReaperUnit-13 still thrumming in his bones. Before him, three towering pillars rose from the ground, each bathed in different colored light.
[Class Advancement Unlocked]
Please Select One of the Following Unique Evolution Paths:
1. Strategist – Master of battlefield control, manipulation, and tactical foresight. Gains access to global market simulations, deployment authority over system-owned assets, and real-time enemy profiling.
"Turn your enemies into pawns, and your allies into weapons."
2. Technomancer – A hybrid code-wielder who bends digital and financial laws to manifest reality. Can hack system environments, manipulate AI behavior, and weaponize algorithms.
"Why fight the rules when you can rewrite them?"
3. Executor – A direct-action powerhouse with precision-based killing skills and absolute authority over micro-level system interventions. Gain bonuses for efficiency, clean kills, and economic dismantlement.
"One shot. One command. One empire crumbles."
Kai stared at the options, heart thudding. Each was powerful. Each led to domination. But only one matched his core.
[System Insight Engaged – Optimal Alignment: 91.3% Match Detected…]
[Recommended Class: Strategist]
He smirked.
"Control the board. Rewrite the rules. And then crush the kings that think they own it."
[Class Advancement Confirmed: Strategist]
[New Abilities Unlocked:]
Market War Table (Passive): Visualize economic and strategic data as battlefield overlays.
Domino Protocol (Active): Trigger chain reactions across linked assets financial, digital, or systemic.
Asset Override (Ultimate): Temporarily seize control of enemy-owned infrastructure.
[Class Skill Tree Unlocked – Strategist: Lv.1 Initiated]
He felt it instantly. The world bent. Numbers made more sense. Data whispered. The system pulsed beneath his skin like a second heartbeat.
Then came a flash of light.
A new screen appeared.
[Global Broadcast Imminent: You Are Now Visible to All Players for 60 Seconds]
[Warning: High-profile class detected. Expect rival factions to take notice.]
The countdown hit zero.
The world froze and then opened.
All across Genesis-Null, players, developers, corporate spies, and underground guilds looked up as a hologram shimmered in the skies.
A figure in a dark coat stood upon a throne of fractured credit cards and burning contracts.
"My name is Kai Zheng."
"And I'm here to take back what's mine."
The world screamed.
Elsewhere – Damien's Penthouse (Real World, Earth)
Damien Zheng crushed the wine glass in his hand, blood running down his fingers.
"No," he hissed. "This isn't possible. He was supposed to die."
Behind him, Li Na slowly stepped back, horror in her eyes.
On the screen, Kai Zheng smiled.
And the game… had just begun.
Game of Empires
Location: Genesis-Null – Strategic Core Node
Time Since Global Broadcast: 2 hours, 37 minutes
The world hadn't just noticed Kai Zheng.
It had begun to react.
Every major faction, corporation, and underground syndicate across Genesis-Null was scrambling. The name "Kai Zheng" once erased from the financial and digital world was now lighting up black-market terminals, classified investor logs, and military AI protocols like a virus returning from extinction.
But Kai didn't flinch.
He stood alone in the shadows of his newly claimed Strategic Core Node, watching data streams pulse through glass-like walls. The structure was once abandoned a relic of early System testing but now it served as the perfect war room.
[System Update: You are now being tracked by 7 Global Players and 3 Corporate Executives.]
[Warning: Incoming intrusion attempt detected. Source: Crimson Helix Guild.]
[Initiating Counter-Trace Protocol…]
Kai raised one hand and let the data flow like liquid across his fingertips. The Market War Table unfurled before him a grid overlay of Genesis-Null, glowing with asset hubs, economic hotspots, and player movement patterns.
"They want a game?" he murmured. "Let's give them a war."
Meanwhile – Crimson Helix Guild Headquarters
Top 5 Global Guild – Known for Aggressive M&A (Murder & Acquisition)
"Who the hell is this guy?" barked Guildmaster Ronan, a cybernetically enhanced warlord whose avatar had the appearance of a horned giant.
"He came out of nowhere, hijacked a dead system node, and now he's trending above us on the Global Influence Index," snapped a tech analyst. "He's not just a rogue he's a threat."
The screen showed Kai's war table but it wasn't just a leak.
It was a trap.
Suddenly, alarms shrieked across the guild base.
[ALERT: Primary Fund Vault Under Attack]
[ALERT: Asset Collapse Cascade Detected – Origin: 'Domino Protocol' Skill]
Ronan's eyes widened.
"He's crashing our real investments?"
"Yes, sir! Somehow he's linked our in-game vaults to real-world equity structures stock proxies, currency simulations, even crypto nodes are collapsing!"
Back at the Strategic Core
Kai watched the dominoes fall.
A single investment node sabotaged in the simulation triggered automatic sell-offs in Crimson Helix's real-world crypto investments. Their bots reacted like programmed sheep dumping assets at a loss and exposing security flaws they didn't know existed.
"Lesson one," Kai whispered, activating a second skill, Asset Override. "Control the rules… and you own the players."
He tapped on a glowing red node connected to one of Crimson Helix's data banks.
[Override Successful: Asset Controlled – 6 Minutes Remaining]
[Spawning Subroutine: AI Echo Phantom – Function: Distract, Leak, Delay Response]
An AI clone of Ronan materialized inside their own HQ, giving contradictory commands and sowing chaos.
The Real World – Damien Zheng's Private Network
Undisclosed Location – Offshore Data Fortress
Damien watched the chaos unfold. Crimson Helix's collapse was going viral on dark-net finance boards.
He crushed a pill between his molars and leaned forward. "Deploy Black Ice Protocol. I want Kai Zheng's system ID. Real name. Physical location. Everything."
"Yes, sir," his assistant whispered. "But…"
"But?"
"We ran a scan already. He's ghosted. Even the System doesn't know where he's connecting from."
Damien froze.
"He's hiding from the System itself?"
Genesis-Null – Urban Sector 9
Kai stepped into the digital shadows of Sector 9, where abandoned data markets still held remnants of forgotten technologies and rogue AIs. A cloaked figure awaited him.
"Didn't think you'd come alone," the figure said.
"Didn't think you'd still be alive, Coda," Kai replied.
Coda a legendary data smuggler, AI whisperer, and one of the few people Kai had helped in his previous life. Now, Kai needed his help again.
"There's something brewing," Kai said. "Bigger than guilds. Bigger than revenge."
"You're talking about the Core Protocol, aren't you?" Coda asked.
Kai nodded. "And I want to hijack it before Damien does."
Coda blinked.
"You're insane."
"I know. But this time, I have a System. And a war plan."
---
[New Quest Chain Activated: The Core War]
Objective: Locate the Hidden Root Server beneath Genesis-Null
Sub-Objective 1: Recruit 3 System-Wise Allies (0/3)
Sub-Objective 2: Infiltrate the Quantum Spine Tower
Sub-Objective 3: Prevent Damien from accessing Level-9 Override
Reward: Ascension Key – Unlocks Control of Genesis-Null's Reality Layer
Warning: Failure Will Result in Total World Collapse (Real + Virtual)
Kai's Apartment – Real World
In a cramped, dim-lit room, Kai opened his eyes, sweat pouring down his back. The terminal in front of him blinked with new data. His fingers trembled not with fear, but with purpose.
They killed my name.
They erased my legacy.
Now, I'll become the system that replaces them all.
He smiled.
"Time to recruit my kings."