2026-11-11 09:31:02The stale odor of the damp, thin foam mattress instantly stung Adrian's nose. The shrill, screeching noise of motorcycle exhaust outside his narrow window sounded overwhelmingly close, piercing his eardrums.
Adrian jerked up from his position, gasping greedily for air as if his lungs had just been hauled back from the abyss of death.
His chest rose and fell wildly, cold sweat soaking his entire temples and back. He felt his own chest—there was no gaping hole from a magical sword slash, no burning sensation from the mercenary's residual magic energy, and most importantly: his heart was beating fast, alive, and thundering with rage.
His eyes scanned wildly around. The walls of the three-by-three-meter boarding room looked dull, with white paint peeling off the corners.
A rickety wooden desk where he used to compile escort reports stood beside a cheap plastic wardrobe. On top of that desk, a phone screen glowed brightly, displaying a date that made his blood freeze instantly: November 10, 2024. A full year. Time had spun backward exactly twelve months before the night of that rotten betrayal where Julian Vance kicked him into the abyss of death to harvest system points.
"I'm... back?" Adrian whispered, his voice hoarse, trembling amidst the lingering shock and the boiling wave of adrenaline coursing through his blood vessels.
Before he could even process this mortal miracle, the air before him hummed sharply. A glowing red light projected a transparent holographic panel floating right in front of his face.
Rigid digital-style text blinked aggressively, producing a loud electronic buzzing sound inside Adrian's head.
[Critical Warning: Illegal Access User (Bug) Detected in Time Sector-01.][Fatal Error in Re-booting Protocol. Subject Consciousness Integrated with Core System without Host Authorization.][Player Status: Illegal / Uninvited Guest.]
Adrian stared intently at the blood-red lines of text. In his previous life, he was merely an ordinary human—a pet dog to a wealthy family with zero access rights to The Pantheon Collective's cosmic system.
But this time, his death—filled with absolute hatred—seemed to have corrupted the basic code loopholes of the universe. His soul wasn't erased; instead, he had infiltrated the core of the system as a pure anomaly.
"Illegal, huh?" The corner of Adrian's mouth lifted into a terrifying, cold smile. "You call it a bug. I call it a weapon." The system that used to be the exclusive privilege of elite figures like Julian Vance now hung in the air right before his eyes, without an official master, without any security restrictions.
Adrian's fists clenched tightly. The vengeful grudge from the future burned every cell of his body, demanding a retribution of equal measure. If this world ran on the laws of numbers and statistics, he would hack those laws from their roots.
To test whether this anomaly was truly real or merely a remnant hallucination from the threshold of death, Adrian decided to perform a basic physical action. He stepped down from the bed, stretching his arm muscles, which felt far lighter than they had during his final moments as an aged bodyguard.
He took a push-up position on the cold concrete floor of the boarding room. Without hesitation, Adrian began pushing his body up and down in a fast, consistent rhythm.
One... Two... Three...
On the tenth repetition, his breathing began to race. However, a strange phenomenon immediately exploded before his eyes. The red holographic panel that had been blinking now turned bright blue with text shifting wildly:
[Physical Activity Detected: Push-up (1 repetition)][System detecting memory integrity flaw in physical strength parameters...][Applying automatic compensation for Illegal Subject...][Push-up completed. Reward: +1 STR (Strength).]
Adrian halted his movement for a second, his eyebrows knitted sharply. Only a single push-up and an immediate reward of one strength point? he thought in amazement.
In this world, the heirs of magical noble clans required months of grueling training and the consumption of expensive alchemy potions just to raise a single tier of base attributes.
However, what happened next completely defied any logical reasoning. At this point, Adrian felt his heartbeat racing faster not from physical exhaustion, but from a strange vibration creeping up from the tip of his spine.
The system before him suddenly acted up in a completely absurd way, as if realizing that its very existence was a cosmic accident with no boundaries or safety brakes.
The air in the narrow room suddenly felt heavy, filled with a low-frequency hum that caused his ears to ring violently, as an invisible wave of energy began flowing straight into his bloodstream.
The holographic panel in front of Adrian did not stop blinking. System codes suddenly jumped about wildly, experiencing severe error loops due to Adrian's soul status as an unknown bug unhandled by protective protocols.
[Error Detected: Reward Execution Loop Cannot Be Closed.][Repeating reward... +1 STR...][Memory pointer error... Repeating reward... +1 STR... +1 STR...][Warning: Data stream overflowing! Muscle strength synchronization forced to rise without maximum limit!]
"Argh—!"
Adrian suddenly groaned muffledly. His entire body felt stung by an electrical current of thousands of volts.
His bones creaked loudly, while the muscle fibers in his arms, chest, and back tightened and expanded within seconds.
The blood vessels in his neck bulged to the surface, radiating a burning sensation he had never experienced in his entire life. It felt as though his body was being reforged inside a steel-smelting furnace.
The sound of system chimes rang continuously, buzzing deafeningly inside his skull.
In less than ten seconds, his physical strength statistics skyrocketed past the limits of human capability, bypassing the tier of mercenary soldiers, and even surpassing the minimum threshold of elite magical knights.
When that energy current finally subsided and the holographic panel stopped blinking, Adrian slowly stood up. He clenched his right fist tightly, feeling a dense, massive power concentrated in every joint. Unconsciously, he unleashed a light punch toward the thick concrete wall beside his room.
Instantly, that thick concrete wall cracked into pieces, shattering completely with just a single bare-handed swing that wasn't even delivered with full force.
Adrian stared at his own clenched fist, then gazed at his reflection in the small dusty mirror in the corner of the room. The glint in his eyes was now much sharper, colder, and more lethal than before. A new game had begun, and this time, he was no longer a chess piece to be discarded at will.
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CHAPTER 10 — GLITCH THAT SHOOK THE HIGH TABLE
The low-pitched emergency siren wailed, shattering the silence of the night around the abandoned psychiatric hospital in the northwest district.Searchlights spun rapidly from various angles, casting sharp beams toward the main courtyard, reflecting the long shadow of Adrian's figure as he continued walking forward without hesitation.Behind the third-floor glass walls, hundreds of elite Vance corporation mercenary soldiers stood in neat rows with assault rifles cocked perfectly, locking onto the sole target down below in their lethal sights.To anyone, that sight was the literal definition of a mass grave.Inside the third-floor main room, Madam Valeria stood tall beside Dr. Elena's bound chair. Her deep purple-hooded cloak fluttered softly in the night wind sneaking through the old window.The middle-aged woman flashed a wide smile, revealing her horrifying yellow teeth. Before her, a black crystal orb artifact floated in the air, emitting waves of bluish light shrouding the entire
CHAPTER 9 — THE GOLDEN BAIT TRAP
The shiny marble floor in the master study of the Vance Manor reflected the light of a gigantic crystal chandelier hanging magnificently from the high ceiling.The room was filled with the scent of imported cigar tobacco mixed with the fragrance of aged mahogany wood. Behind a massive classic-style desk, Arthur Vance sat in an upright posture, his fingers wearing a black gemstone ring tapping rhythmically against the desk surface.The middle-aged man's face was hard, cold, and radiated the absolute authority of a patriarch accustomed to orchestrating the life and death of others in this city.Before him, Julian stood restlessly with a bandage wrapped vaguely around his neck. The lingering fear from the corporate lobby incident still haunted his eyes, mingling with a burning anger."Father, you have to believe me!" Julian's voice trembled slightly, trying to convince the man he feared most in this world. "Adrian is no longer the ordinary bodyguard we used to know. He killed an entire e
CHAPTER 8 — THE UNDERWORLD ALLIANCE
The night breeze swept through the quiet corners of the city, carrying along the scent of damp earth mixed with the lingering smell of gunpowder radiating in the air.Inside an old, abandoned warehouse located behind the ruins of a derelict textile factory, the atmosphere felt much calmer, though tension still hung thickly in every corner of the room.The glow of a makeshift emergency chandelier hung casually, casting long shadows against the mossy concrete walls.Adrian stood near the worn window, monitoring the outside through the gaps of the rusted iron blinds. On an old folding cot in the corner of the room, Marcus lay with a now-steady breath.Beside him, Maya sat kneeling while tightly holding her older brother's hand, her eyes still holding remnants of tears and fear from what they had endured hours ago.Minutes earlier, Adrian had accessed the God Skill Shop via his system interface, which had experienced an error loop. Without spending a single point or contribution coin—than
CHAPTER 7 — THE SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL REAPERS
The air inside the narrow room suddenly transformed into a gravitational field that pressed down on the chest of anyone breathing it.The glow of the light bulb that had previously flickered out now turned back on with a dim, reddish radiance, casting long shadows against the rotting wooden walls.Maya immediately rushed forward, embracing the body of her brother, Marcus, who lay weakly with ragged breaths on the floor.The girl wept hysterically, holding her brother's body tight while ensuring there were no severe slash wounds on the man's face.Before them, the figure standing tall with his back to the light was no longer the ordinary bodyguard they had known a few days ago.Adrian stood with a calm posture, yet surrounding his body emanated an aura of pitch-black energy that rippled wildly. A thin shadow cloak draped over his shoulders, moving alive like a bloodthirsty living entity. Without looking back, Adrian spoke in a low yet absolute voice, breaking the tense silence."Take M
CHAPTER 6 — LAST-MINUTE RESCUE
The desolating night wind carried the dense scent of soot and street dust across the eastern sector of the city. The narrow alleys usually filled with the laughter of neighboring children had now turned into a grim, silent graveyard.The street lamps flickered weakly, as if shivering at the sight of the convoy of black armored vehicles blocking every access point in and out of the densely populated residential area.The cleanup operation that night moved without mercy. Elite mercenary squads from the Vance family's special division spread rapidly to every corner of the residents' homes.The wooden doors of the shanties were forcefully broken down, dragging out innocent people who could only scream in terror within the darkness.In the eyes of the elite tower masters, the mortals in this slum district were nothing more than mere commodities—statistical figures ready to be sacrificed to harvest system points and maintain their dominance of power.Amidst the chaos, a small rented house m
CHAPTER 5 — HUNTING IN THE DARK ALLEY
The metropolitan night air crept down, carrying a bone-chilling cold. Neon lights from commercial buildings in the distance cast a dreary glow upon the wet asphalt freshly soaked by a light drizzle.Among the towering concrete labyrinth lay a narrow alley in the suburban district—a dead-end alley rarely touched by people, where night shadows concealed the darkest side of this city.Adrian walked casually down the alleyway. His footsteps sounded faint, blending with the gentle hum of the night wind blowing between moss-covered red brick walls.In his grip, no weapons of any kind were visible. Yet, his consciousness remained at the highest level of alertness. He knew the Vance clan's operational methods all too well; they never let anyone who had humiliated the great family breathe for longer than twenty-four hours.Suddenly, Adrian's steps halted.The sound of synchronized military combat boots echoing neatly from the front and back of the alley simultaneously. Escape routes were compl
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