Black Coin

I

[Chapter Prologue: No God Order]

The High Realm was a world full of white marble and golden air. Thousands of Gods were standing in a circle, with their armor shining so bright that it hurt to look at. They either held spears of lightning or swords made of stars and other godly weapons.

In the middle stood one man. He looked rather plain. He wore black clothes that were dusty and torn. While In his hand, he flipped a dark-black metal coin. Clink. Clink.

"Hand over the 'No God Order' coin!" a God with six wings shouted in Rage. "That power is not for mortals! It is a sin for you to even touch it!"

The man didn't answer. He just looked at the coin in his hands. The coin was his godslayer power, the ultimate cheat code. It was like a divine godly computer program for reality. Whatever he said, the coin made it a law. If he said "Sun is cold," the sun would freeze. It was the power to rewrite the rules of the universe. 'The No God Order'.

"Kill him!" the winged God ordered.

A thousand Gods charged. The ground shook. STOMP. STOMP. STOMP. The man flicked the coin high into the air. Ting! "First Rule," the man said, with his voice calm and sarcastic. "Gods can't breathe."

Gasp! Ack! A thousand Gods stopped mid-run. They clutched their throats. Their faces turned into dark shades of purple. The golden air they loved so much had become poison.

"Rule Two," the man on black continued. "All Your armor is made of glass."

He dashed forward. With a Whoosh! He punched the nearest God in the chest. Then SHATTER! The divine armor exploded into tiny, sharp pieces. The man didn't stop there. He was a blur of black movement. Bam! Pow! Crunch! Every time he touched a God, they instantly broke like toys. He was "aura farming" making the most powerful beings in existence look like weak Level 1 mobs.

Squelch! He ripped a wing off a God. Argh! The God screamed in pain.

"Third Rule," the man yelled over the noise. "My touch is absolute destruction."

He slapped his palm against the marble floor. KABOOM! A shockwave of black energy instantly turned a hundred Gods into golden dust. He was now way too strong. He was laughing now, with a dark, and tired sound. Heh. Heh. But the Gods were endless. For every thousand he killed, ten thousand more appeared from the golden clouds. They began to use "Holy Restraint" magic. Chains of light shot out of the ground and wrapped around his arms. Clang! "Ugh!" The man fell to one knee. A spear of light instantly pierced his leg. Pshhh-t! "Argh!" he groaned. The pain was like hot needles in his nerves.

The Gods crowded him, stabbing and hitting him rapidly. Thud! Crack! Slice! He was losing too much blood. His vision was quickly turning red.

"The coin! Give it here!" the winged God screamed, while stepping on the man’s bloody hand.

The man looked up. His eyes were bloodshot, 6but they were full of hate. Cough! "You want it?" the man wheezed. "Fine. Rule Four: The successor is chosen for the No God coin. Rule Five: This body is a void bomb."

The Gods' eyes went wide. "Wait!"

The man used his last bit of strength to flick the coin into a tiny black hole that had opened in the air due to his rule. Zip. The No God Order was gone, traveling through space and time to find a new master.

"See you in hell," the man whispered. Sigh.

The man triggered the self-destruction.

VREEEEEE—BOOM!

The man’s body exploded in a massive wave of black void energy. It wasn't like a fire explosion; it was a vacuum that sucked the Gods in and erased them. The marble palace crumbled. And The golden sky tore apart. Another thousand Gods had disappeared into nothingness, screaming as they were deleted from reality itself.

When the smoke and chaos cleared up, the man was gone. And so was the coin. Both gone.

The surviving Gods stood in the ruins, trembling. They had won the battle, but they felt like they had already lost the war. Somewhere, in a different time and space, in an unknown universe, the No God Order was waiting for someone to flip it again.

[End of Prologue]

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***

[Chapter 1: The Zero Percent Debt]

The last thing Seven remembered was the heat from the explosion. It wasn't just hot; it was a wall of white fire that turned the air into glass. He had slammed the heavy iron door shut, and clicking the lock just as the timer hit zero. Click. BOOM. He had saved them all. Thousands of people were running toward the emergency exits, and he was the only thing between them and the blast. He had activated the blast container to save everyone, but at what cost. His entire body had been erased in a heartbeat by the explosion.

Now, he could see that there was no fire. Neither was there any noise.

Seven slowly opened his eyes and blinked. He was standing on a strange floor that looked like frozen clouds. In front of him was a desk made of solid, glowing crystal. While Behind the desk sat a being that made his head ache just to look at. The being had skin like starlight and eyes that moved like spinning galaxies.

"Uh... hello?" Seven whispered. With His voice sounding thin. Gulp. He patted his chest. He could feel that his heart wasn't beating, but he felt alive. "Am I dead? Is this the heavenly gates? Am I in Heaven?"

The being didn't bother to look up from a long scroll of floating light. The being looked bored. He looked more like an office worker who had been stuck in traffic for three hours. "Sigh." The entity finally tapped a finger on the desk after a while. Tink. Tink.

"You aren't in Heaven," the being said. With His voice sounding like two tectonic plates grinding together. "This is the Great Hall of Reincarnation. You're just another file on my desk, Mr Seven."

Seven’s eyes instantly went wide. "Whoa". His brain started to race. He thought about all the anime he had watched during late nights. He thought about the light novels where the hero gets hit by a truck and wakes up with a massive sword and a system. "Yes!" he thought. "I died a hero. I sacrificed myself! This is it. I’m going to get a cheat code. I’m going to be the overpowered main character in a fantasy world!"

"So," Seven said, while leaning forward with a huge grin. "Do I get a holy sword? Or maybe a magic system that lets me level up by eating? I’m so ready for my new life, Mr. God."

The being finally looked up. He didn't look impressed. Instead He looked annoyed. "New life? You think this is a reward?" The being slightly leaned back, his starlit face twisting into a scowl. "You are a massive pain in my neck, kid. You've disrupted the entire balance. Those thousands of people that you saved? Most of them were supposed to die. Their souls were scheduled for harvest."

Seven’s grin immediately vanished. "Wait... what? I saved them! There were kids in that building!"

"And now I have to rewrite ten thousand fate-threads because of your 'heroism,'" the being snapped. He waved a hand, and the air around Seven turned cold. "You’ve played Final Destination with reality. You helped them cheat death, and there is a price for that. You think you can just break the rules and get a prize?"

"That’s not fair!" Seven yelled. He Stomped. "I did the right thing!"

"Fair doesn't live here," the being said, with his voice turning icy. Then He went back to reading his long scroll. "Well I have some good news, According to the ancient laws, you are entitled to a reincarnation because your soul is still 'not scheduled for harvest.' But don't expect a vacation. I’m sending you to a world that will chew you up like hell."

The being snapped his fingers, and a holographic map of a strange universe appeared and he started explaining. "It’s what you'll call a Xianxia world. With Cultivators, sects, flying swords—the whole bit. But it’s not like your topical old-fashioned cultivation world. Thousands of years ago, aliens invaded this world during it's primitive era. To stop them, we the Gods sent a hero with a system who brought advanced technology. And Now, it’s an interstellar mess. They have both spaceships and cultivation. They even travel to other dimensions to hunt beasts. They eat the meat of those monsters to gain 'Spirit Points' and boost their bodies."

Seven just listened, his heart sinking. It sounded pretty cool, but the being’s tone was Linda terrifying.

"In this world," the being continued, "everyone awakens an ability. They call it Divine Essence. It’s their power, or their spark. 99.99% of the population has one. But once in a century or two, someone is born without it. A blank. A null. They are useless piece of meat in a world of monsters and lasers."

The being leaned over the desk, with his galaxy-eyes boring into Seven’s soul. Vrummm. The mystical sound of the hall grew louder, like a warning.

"You wanted to be special, Seven, no? Well, you're going to that world. But as your punishment for saving those people, you won't have a Divine Essence. You're going to be part of that 00.01%. You're going to be a nobody with nothing."

Seven opened his mouth to argue, and to scream, to protest. Wait! No! "Good luck," the being said sarcastically. "You're going to need it."