CHAPTER TWO A knock sounded at the door. It wasn't a polite knock. It was a heavy, rhythmic pounding that made the thin walls vibrate. "Get your ass out here, Miller! You're ten minutes late!" The voice belonged to Marcus. He was my supervisor at the logistics hub, a man whose personality was as abrasive as the sandpaper he used to scrub his calloused hands. In my first life, I had spent three years apologizing to him every single morning. I stood up slowly. My muscles felt weak, underdeveloped. I felt a surge of disgust for this version of myself, but beneath the disgust was a spark of something else. Hunger. I opened the door. Marcus stood there, a mountain of a man with a neck thicker than my thigh and a face that looked like it had been carved from a potato. He was wearing his grey foreman's jumpsuit, his arms crossed over a barrel chest. "Look at you," Marcus sneered, his voice a low rumble. "Still in your pajamas? Do you think the world stops turning because Aeron Miller

CHAPTER FOUR My blood turned to ice. In my first life, Julius and I had been friends in high school, or so I thought. He was the charismatic one, the leader, the man everyone followed. He had seen something in me, or perhaps he had just seen a useful tool. He had protected me from the bullies, given me a sense of belonging, and in return, I had given him my absolute loyalty. Until the gemstone, I stared at the screen. The message was simple. "Hey Aeron. Long time no see. I'm back in Oakhaven for a few days. Want to grab a drink at The Neon Coil?" I felt a surge of nausea. The betrayal flashed before my eyes: the feeling of the knife, the look of boredom on his face. I wanted to scream. I wanted to find him right now and drive this new blade into his throat. But I stopped. If I killed him now, I would be a murderer in a world that still had laws. I would be in a cell when the System descended. I needed him alive. Not as a friend, but as a target. I wanted him to see the world fall

CHAPTER SIX The moment my knife entered the creature's chest, I knew something was wrong. There was no resistance. The blade passed through its body as if I had stabbed a cloud of smoke. My eyes widened. I twisted my body just as a black claw swept across the space where my head had been. I hit the ground and rolled. The claw struck the stone floor. BOOM! Chunks of ancient stone exploded into the air as I pushed myself backward and stared at the Shadow-Stalker. It was exactly as I remembered. Nearly three meters tall, its body constantly shifting between solid flesh and thick black smoke. Its arms were too long for its body, ending in curved obsidian claws capable of slicing through steel. Two violet eyes burned inside the darkness where its face should have been. But there was one difference. It was looking directly at me, as it knew that I know it. In my first life, I had never been this close to the creature when it emerged. I had arrived three days later. By then, the Sh

CHAPTER EIGHT The floor exploded. Stone fragments shot through the air as something enormous forced its way out of the darkness beneath us. I jumped backward, Elena raised her sword. The four men scattered. A deafening roar shook the entire basement. Then I saw it. A massive black arm emerged from the hole. It wasn't the Shadow-Stalker. I knew every creature that had appeared during the first week of the apocalypse. Every monster. Every rift. Every dungeon. This thing wasn't supposed to exist. "Move!" I shouted. The creature pulled itself out of the broken floor. It was enormous. At least four meters tall, with a body covered in dark scales. Two curved horns grew from its skull, and violet flames burned inside its empty eye sockets. A long chain was wrapped around its chest. At the end of the chain was a strange metal object that looked like a sealed box. My eyes narrowed. I had never seen anything like it. The System appeared. [Unknown Entity Detected.] [Classificati

CHAPTER TEN The growl came again, deep and heavy. Powerful enough to make the floor beneath my feet vibrate. Dust sifted from the ceiling. The chandeliers trembled overhead, their crystal ornaments clinking together in a frantic, uneven rhythm. Somewhere behind the walls, an alarm began to wail, adding another layer of noise to the growing chaos. The people inside the bank began screaming, some ran toward the entrance. Others rushed toward the elevators. A few froze where they stood, staring at the vault as if their minds refused to accept what they were seeing. The security guards tried to stop the crowd, but panic had already taken control. Their shouted orders disappeared beneath the roar of terrified voices. One guard was knocked to the ground by the fleeing customers, while another drew his weapon with shaking hands and aimed it uselessly at the vault door. I ignored them. My eyes remained fixed on the vault. Julius stood several meters away, completely calm. Too calm for