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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM

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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM

Systemlast updateLast Updated : 2025-04-28

By:  Ng Ongoing

Language: English
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Tony Cross, a broken ex-soldier, wakes up to a system interface flashing before his eyes: [ System Activated ] [ Reality is now under your control. ] What starts as a gift quickly turns into a curse. Every use of the system rewrites his past, altering memories and erasing parts of his existence. Hunted by black ops forces and a shadowy organization known as The Overseers, Tony discovers the system was never meant to empower—only to control. To survive, he must outmaneuver Zero, a ruthless assassin who has mastered the system, and find Dr. Valeria Kane, the rogue scientist who knows its secrets. But as reality fractures around him, Tony faces an impossible truth: He is no longer just a man. He is becoming something else.

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Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

: System Activated

The world spun. My vision blurred as I stumbled against the cold, damp alley wall, gasping for breath. Blood dripped from the cut above my eye, mixing with the rain pooling beneath me. Every muscle ached, and every nerve felt like it was on fire. The debt collectors hadn't gone easy on me.

Not that I expected them to.

"You had your chance, Cross," one of them had sneered before driving his boot into my ribs. Another punch. Another kick. And now, here I was—left to rot in the shadows of the same city I once fought to protect. The sharp, metallic taste of blood filled my mouth as I tried to move. I failed.

A broken ex-soldier, drowning in debt, haunted by war, and discarded by the country I once bled for.

Poetic. In the sickest way possible.

My pulse slowed. The cold crept deeper into my bones.

So this is how it ends.

A shaky breath escaped my lips as my body surrendered. My eyes fluttered shut. The distant hum of the city faded into nothingness.

And then—

A soft ding echoed in the darkness.

> [System Activated]

[You have 24 hours to accept or be erased.]

My breath caught. My eyes snapped open. The pain was still there, but something was… different. Like a switch had been flipped in my brain, an unfamiliar energy thrumming beneath my skin.

A translucent screen hovered before me, its golden letters pulsing like a heartbeat.

What the hell?

> [Accept? Y/N]

A hollow laugh escaped me. Was this death? A glitch in my dying brain? My fingers twitched, barely responsive. But what choice did I have?

I clenched my jaw. If this was insanity, I was already lost. And if it was something else…

I pressed ‘Y.’

White-hot energy exploded through my veins. My back arched, teeth clenching as every nerve caught fire. I gasped, the pain sharp, electric—then suddenly, it was gone.

Silence.

My wounds were sealed. The pain vanished. My senses sharpened, the world around me snapping into a crisp clarity I had never experienced before. The scent of wet pavement. The distant rumble of car engines. The flickering streetlamp above me, every tiny crack in the glass now visible.

I bolted upright, pressing a hand to my side where the knife had sliced me open. Nothing. No wound. No blood.

"Holy shit."

> [System Integration Complete.]

[Welcome, Tony Cross.]

A shiver ran down my spine. Adrenaline surged, stirring something primal inside me—something I thought I'd lost a long time ago. I pushed myself up. My body responded like a well-oiled machine. Strong. Efficient. Alive.

But what the hell had I just signed up for?

A new prompt flashed in front of me.

> [Mission: Eliminate Your Pursuers.]

[Time Limit: 10 Minutes.]

I stilled. Footsteps echoed down the alley. The debt collectors—coming back to finish the job.

I flexed my fingers. The broken man I was ten minutes ago no longer existed. Something new had taken his place. Something hungry.

And I welcomed it.

The first thug rounded the corner. "Son of a—"

I moved before he could finish. My fist slammed into his gut, the impact jolting up my arm. He wheezed, stumbling back. I didn’t give him a chance to recover—pivot, elbow to the jaw. He crumpled to the ground.

Another one lunged at me, a knife glinting under the neon glow. Time slowed. I saw the way his muscles tensed, his grip tightening around the handle.

Too predictable.

I sidestepped, caught his wrist, twisted—

A sickening snap.

He screamed, the blade clattering to the pavement. One swift kick to the chest sent him flying.

The last one hesitated. "What the fuck?" His gaze flickered between his fallen men and me. I saw it—the creeping fear.

I smirked. "Wanna try your luck?"

He turned and ran.

> [Mission Complete.]

[+10 Strength, +5 Agility.]

I exhaled, rolling my shoulders. Every movement felt effortless like my body had been reforged into something sharper, deadlier.

But this was just the beginning.

I needed answers.

And I knew exactly where to start.

---

The dive bar on 9th Street smelled like whiskey and regret. Perfect. I walked in, drawing a few lazy glances before the regulars turned back to their drinks.

At the far end of the bar, a man nursed a glass of bourbon. His tailored suit stuck out in this rundown hole like a diamond in the dirt.

Vincent DeLuca. Loan shark. Manipulator. The reason I was bleeding out in that alley a few hours ago.

He looked up, amusement flickering in his dark eyes. "Well, well. Tougher than I gave you credit for. Figured my guys left you for dead."

"They tried."

I slid into the seat across from him. The air between us thickened, tension crackling like static.

DeLuca studied me and took a slow sip of his drink. "Something's different about you."

I leaned forward. "What do you know about the system?"

His glass froze mid-air. Just for a second. But I caught it.

"That," he said carefully, setting his drink down, "is a dangerous question."

"And I like dangerous answers."

A slow grin spread across his face. "Then you’re in for a hell of a ride."

> [New Mission Unlocked.]

[Survive the Night.]

I smirked.

Let them come.

I was just getting started.

---

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    220 chapters
    CHAPTER 1
    : System ActivatedThe world spun. My vision blurred as I stumbled against the cold, damp alley wall, gasping for breath. Blood dripped from the cut above my eye, mixing with the rain pooling beneath me. Every muscle ached, and every nerve felt like it was on fire. The debt collectors hadn't gone easy on me.Not that I expected them to."You had your chance, Cross," one of them had sneered before driving his boot into my ribs. Another punch. Another kick. And now, here I was—left to rot in the shadows of the same city I once fought to protect. The sharp, metallic taste of blood filled my mouth as I tried to move. I failed.A broken ex-soldier, drowning in debt, haunted by war, and discarded by the country I once bled for.Poetic. In the sickest way possible.My pulse slowed. The cold crept deeper into my bones.So this is how it ends.A shaky breath escaped my lips as my body surrendered. My eyes fluttered shut. The distant hum of the city faded into nothingness.And then—A soft ding
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-22
    Read more
    CHAPTER 2
    The World Feels... WrongI wake up to a flickering sky.The streetlights above me pulse in and out like a dying heartbeat, casting shifting shadows over the cracked pavement. A neon sign blinks too fast, its letters scrambling into nonsense before snapping back into place. A man in a brown coat walks past—then stops, stutters backward in a loop, and repeats the motion like a corrupted video file.What the hell?My breath catches. My limbs feel sluggish as I push myself up from the ground. I don’t remember collapsing. The last thing I recall is... pain. A sharp, electric kind of agony surged through my skull, leaving nothing but static in its wake. Now I’m here, with the world around me glitching like a broken simulation.“Hey! Are you okay?”I turn too fast, my balance shifting strangely as if gravity itself is recalibrating. A woman stands a few feet away, her expression uncertain. Her voice sounds off—like an echo arriving before the words do. Her eyes flicker for half a second, iri
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 3
    Testing the SystemA pulse of static rattles my skull as I reach for something unseen, my mind stretching into the void. The world around me flickers—distant, muffled—like reality itself is an old television struggling to maintain its signal.And then, everything sharpens.A screen materializes in my mind’s eye, the words forming as though whispered into existence:[Status Screen] Strength: Human (Upgradeable) Reflexes: Enhanced (Unstable) Cognitive Processing: Above Normal]My breath catches in my throat. This isn’t normal. This isn’t possible.Before I can even process what I’m seeing, another message overlays the first, stark and sterile in its cold declaration:[Welcome, Anomaly. You are not supposed to exist.]Ice floods my veins. My stomach twists. My entire body stiffens as if the mere acknowledgment of my existence is enough to unravel me from the inside out.I am not supposed to exist.What the hell does that even mean?My pulse hammers in my ears. My hands clench into fists.
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 4
    First Signs of TroubleThe moment I reach for the glass, time bends.I see it falling, slow as a raindrop suspended in midair. My arm moves without thought, faster than it ever should. My fingers close around the glass just before it shatters against the counter. My heart pounds in my chest as I set it down carefully, staring at my own hand like it belonged to someone else.A deep breath. A slow exhale. It’s fine. Just another side effect.Then the lights flicker.For a moment, my apartment isn’t my apartment. The walls stretch, shift—becoming something sterile, metallic. The air feels thinner. I swear I see another version of myself in the mirror, his expression twisted in alarm. And then, just as suddenly, reality snaps back into place.I take a step back, my breath shallow. "No, no, no…"The words are barely a whisper.A sharp chime rings in my ears. My vision warps, lines of red text burning into my sight.[Overseer Alert: Tracking Initiated]A cold weight settles in my gut. The s
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 5
    A Fractured RealityI burst through the front door, my breath ragged, my heart hammering against my ribs. The street outside is bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun, but something is wrong—terribly wrong. The houses stretch in impossible ways, their angles distorted, as if reality itself is struggling to hold form. The air crackles with an energy I don’t understand.I stagger forward, rubbing my eyes. Maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Maybe exhaustion has finally caught up. But then I see it—the old oak tree in Mr. Peterson’s yard, the one I climbed a thousand times as a kid, flickering like a bad signal on a TV screen.Panic tightens my chest.“Hey! Hey, Mr. Peterson!” I call out, spotting him on his porch, rocking back and forth in his favorite chair.He turns toward me, but his face is wrong. His eyes are unfocused, his mouth slightly open as if caught in some kind of trance. A second later, he vanishes, his entire body dissolving into thin air.I stumble backwa
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 6
    Breaking LimitsI take a deep breath, my muscles coiled like springs. The sensation of raw energy hums beneath my skin, an itch I can’t scratch. My body is no longer bound by the same rules. I feel it—every fiber of my being screaming for release, for motion, for something more. I need to push. I need to see how far I can go.The first test is speed. I lunge forward, the wind slicing past me as the world blurs. One moment, I’m at the end of my street. The next, I’m standing on the other side of town, my chest rising and falling in rapid bursts. My heart should be pounding from exertion, but it’s not. The rush of movement fills me with a heady kind of exhilaration.But then, the world twitches.The streetlights overhead flicker, their glow stuttering in odd, rhythmic pulses. The same couple I passed on the sidewalk a second ago reappears in front of me, walking the same path, holding the same conversation, their words eerily identical.I step back, a cold knot forming in my stomach. “W
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 7
    Searching for the Past The drive to Darren’s place felt longer than it should have. Maybe it was the unease twisting in my gut or the memories stirring like ghosts in the backseat. Darren Cole wasn’t just an old military buddy—he was the one person who had my back when the world turned against me. If anyone could help me make sense of the chaos unraveling around me, it was him.But when I reached the spot where his house should have been, my breath hitched.There was nothing.No mailbox, no picket fence, not even the cracked driveway where we used to sit and drink beer after deployments. Just an empty lot overgrown with weeds, as if no one had lived there in years.A deep chill crept up my spine. This wasn’t right.I killed the engine and stepped out, my boots crunching against the gravel. The air felt too still, the silence too perfect. I walked to where his front porch should’ve been, kneeling to brush my fingers against the dirt. No remnants of a foundation. No signs of demolition
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 8
    Ghost in the SystemI stared at my screen, fingers hovering over the keyboard, my pulse pounding in my ears. Darren had to be here—somewhere. Somewhere in the vast, sprawling veins of the government’s digital infrastructure, his name had to exist.I ran the search again, breathing shallowly and scrolling through the results.No matches were found.The words burned into my vision. My stomach twisted into a tight knot. Impossible. Nobody just vanished, especially not from a system that tracked everything—bank records, medical files, social security numbers, employment history. And yet, Darren was a ghost. A glitch. A name wiped clean from existence.My fists clenched, and before I knew it, I slammed them against the desk. "No. No way."I pulled up my secondary hacking interface, digging deeper. Bypassing firewalls. Scraping encrypted archives. Pulling fragments of forgotten data like a desperate archaeologist clawing through ruins.Nothing.I checked birth records, school transcripts, a
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 9
    System Intrusion Detected The screen flickered—one moment, a stream of classified data, the next, a flashing red warning.INTRUSION DETECTED. TRACE INITIATED.A wave of panic hit me. I wasn’t supposed to be here. The system wasn’t supposed to react this fast. My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I searched for a way out. Too late. I had been careless. And now, I was exposed.My phone buzzed sharply in my pocket. Expecting a security alert, I grabbed it—only to feel my heart pound harder at what I heard.A low, mechanical voice whispered one word: "Run."Every muscle in my body tensed. Who was this? How did they know? There was no time to think. Instinct took over. I slammed my laptop shut, pulled out the USB, and jumped up.My apartment, once my safe space, was now a trap. If they had traced me, that meant only one thing—they were already coming. No sirens. No warnings. Just a silent execution.I stuffed my laptop into my backpack and grabbed burner phones, hard drives, and every
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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    CHAPTER 10
    The AttackThe first bullet zips past my ear, so close that I swear I feel the heat of its friction as it slices through the air. My breath catches. My pulse spikes. And then—everything slows.The world stretches into unbearable clarity as my enhanced reflexes take over, a gift I never asked for and a curse I can never escape. The system inside me does what it always does: it calculates. Within the span of a blink, a dozen potential escape routes manifest before my eyes. But before I can even act on them, something fractures in my vision—two versions of the same moment unfolding in tandem.One reality: I move too slow. The bullet finds its mark, ripping through my skull.The other: I roll left, just in time, just barely scraping by with my life intact.I don’t get to choose.The system does.I feel my body react before my mind even processes the decision. The muscles in my torso tighten, and I throw myself to the left, hitting the ground with a force that rattles my bones. The impact
    last updateLast Updated : 2025-02-24
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