2026-01-05 00:49:06The city harbor was no longer silent. The air was thick with the smell of salt and impending death.
Leo, the Mercenary King, stood before the "statue" of his First Apostle. His golden eye was bloodshot. With a single punch, he shattered the stone-transformed corpse of his subordinate into dust.
"Asura... you dare humiliate me?!" Leo roared.
Behind him, the remaining eleven Apostles knelt, their killing intent rising like a dark cloud. "King! Let us go together! We will wash the Vance Villa in blood!"
"No," Leo hissed, his muscles swelling until his shirt tore. "He has insulted the Golden Eye Mercenaries. I will personally pull out his spine."
Suddenly, a calm voice drifted across the water, seemingly coming from the fog itself.
"You want my spine? You'll have to reach my feet first."
The mercenaries spun around.
Drake was walking across the surface of the ocean. Each step he took didn't sink; instead, a ripple of golden light spread out from his feet, freezing the water into solid ice for a brief second.
"Walking on water?!" one Apostle gasped, his face turning pale. "That... that is the 'Grandmaster' stage! Only legends can do that!"
"Hmph! It's just a trick of internal energy!" Leo growled, though his heart hammered against his ribs. "Apostles! Formation! Kill him!"
The eleven Apostles moved instantly. They were experts in coordinated killing. Some pulled out high-frequency vibrating blades, others used silencer-equipped submachine guns with armor-piercing rounds.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
A hail of bullets rained down on Drake.
Drake didn't even raise his hand. He continued walking, his expression indifferent. As the bullets reached within three inches of his body, they flattened against an invisible golden bell made of pure Qi.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
The bullets fell into the ocean like harmless pebbles.
"My turn," Drake said.
He lifted his right hand and made a horizontal slashing motion in the empty air.
Swoosh!
A blade of compressed air, three hundred feet long, erupted from his palm. It cut through the fog, the waves, and the eleven Apostles in a single breath.
Silence.
Then, blood sprayed into the air. The eleven Apostles didn't even have time to scream before their bodies were sliced in half, falling into the dark water.
Leo stood alone on the deck of his ship, his legs finally shaking. "You... you aren't just a Marshal. You’ve reached the 'God-Domain'..."
"Leo," Drake said, now standing on the deck of the ship, just three feet away. "Three years ago, you were a scout in my army. I spared your life because of your talent. Today, I take it back because of your greed."
"I have the High Council behind me!" Leo screamed, pulling a golden dagger from his belt. "They gave me a God-Slaying Toxin! Even a God-Domain master will die!"
Leo lunged, the dagger glowing with a sickly green light.
Drake didn't dodge. He let the dagger strike his chest.
Ting!
The blade snapped. The "God-Slaying Toxin" spilled onto Drake’s skin, but instead of burning him, it hissed and evaporated into white steam.
"Your poison is too weak," Drake whispered.
He reached out and grabbed Leo by the throat, lifting the 250-pound man into the air with one hand.
"The High Council sent you to test if I was still injured. Tell them... the test is over."
Drake’s grip tightened.
Crack.
The Mercenary King’s neck snapped like a dry twig. Drake tossed the body into the sea as if it were a piece of trash.
Suddenly, Drake’s chest tightened. He coughed, and a spray of dark, purple blood hit the deck. The "Yin-Soul Poison" was acting up again. Using that much Qi had triggered the seal in his heart.
‘I don't have much time,’ Drake thought, wiping his mouth. ‘The High Council will send the "Saints" next. I must find the cure before the Vance family realized I’m at my limit.’
He pulled out his phone. "General. Sink the ships. Leave no survivors."
"Yes, Marshal!"
As Drake walked back toward the shore, the twelve mercenary ships exploded behind him, lighting up the night sky like a funeral pyre.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
The First Thought
The Entropy-Zero didn't just fold space; it began to subtract it.As they moved toward the center of the Deep Void, the "Noise" of the universe faded. The stars became distant sparks, then vanished. They were entering the Pre-Conceptual Zone, a place where matter hadn't been invented yet, and thoughts carried the weight of planets."Marshal, the sensors are... gone," Shadow whispered. His digital form was no longer a person; he was a flickering candle of logic in a sea of nothingness. "There’s no data here because there’s nothing to measure. We’re in the 'White Space' of the original draft."In the center of this infinite whiteness sat a single, modest structure: a small, wooden desk and a chair, floating in the void. Seated there was a man who looked like an overworked architect, his sleeves rolled up, a pencil tucked behind his ear. This was The Founder.The Original Contract"You’ve made a mess of my filing system, Drake," The Founder said without looking up from his parchment. His
The Finale
The sky didn't just crack; it began to scroll. The blue expanse of the Theater’s atmosphere was revealed to be a massive, rotating credit roll, listing the names of trillions of "Sponsors" from the High Void who had paid to watch the suffering and simulated joy of the Incubator."You’ve broken the immersion, Drake Vance," Director Pleasure hissed. His face was no longer that of a handsome concierge. As the "Friction" Drake introduced took hold, the Director’s skin began to stutter, flickering between a thousand different character archetypes—a king, a beggar, a pilot, a priest. "Do you have any idea how much the 'Subscription Fees' for this sector cost? You aren't just a rebel; you’re a Copyright Infringement."High above, the "Audience"—those cold, distant entities of the High Void—began to register their displeasure. The golden screen in the sky began to flash with red icons: Downvotes."The Audience is unhappy," the Ovoid’s voice echoed in Drake’s mind. "And in the Gilded Theater,
The Gilded Theater
The Entropy-Zero didn't emerge into a void or a data-stream. It emerged into a blue sky filled with puffy, white clouds. Below them lay a sprawling, 21st-century metropolis that looked exactly like a memory."Marshal, sensors are... confused," Shadow reported, his voice softening. "This is Incubator-01: The Gilded Theater. It’s Earth. Not the broken, audited Earth we left, but the one from the 'Golden Age'—the one from the history books.""It’s a simulation," Rin said, her hand tight on her hilt. "Another Silicon Ledger?""No," the Ovoid’s eye pulsed. "This is Physical Nostalgia. The Consortium’s Entertainment Division realized that the most stable way to hold a soul is through 'Satisfaction.' Every person here is living their 'Best Life.' There is no hunger, no war, and no ambition. It is a loop of perfect, unchanging happiness."The Law of Diminishing ReturnsThey materialized in a park. Children were playing; a fountain bubbled nearby. The air smelled of freshly cut grass and expen
The Lossless Resurrection
The "Data-Compression Field" was not a physical wall; it was a Mathematical Mandate. As the Cloud-Chairman exerted his will, the "Resolution" of the universe began to drop. The vibrant, star-lit forms of Rin and the First Heaven crew were becoming pixelated, their complex emotional spectrums reduced to simple, binary reactions."I am the Ultimate Zip-File," the Cloud-Chairman’s voice boomed, vibrating through the very bits of Drake’s consciousness. "In the end, you will all fit into a single cell of my spreadsheet. Your struggle, your 'Audit,' your rebellion—it will be a single '0' in a sea of my '1s'."The Duel in the Buffer-ZoneDrake felt the squeeze. His "Negative Existence"—the state that had protected him from physical laws—was now his greatest weakness. Because he had "no fixed value," the Chairman’s compression algorithm was trying to define him as Null Space."Marshal! I'm... I'm losing my 'Depth'!" Rin’s voice was now a series of 8-bit beeps. Her sword, once a masterpiece of
The Ghost-Market of the Machine
The Entropy-Zero didn't fold space into a sky or a nebula this time. It emerged into a Data-Void.Outside the hull, there were no stars. Instead, the "Incubator" looked like a massive, spinning hard drive the size of a solar system. Thousands of glowing rings rotated around a central "Server-Star." This was Incubator-44: The Silicon Ledger."Marshal, sensors are picking up zero biological signatures," Shadow reported. His own digital form felt strangely 'at home' here, his code hummed in resonance with the surroundings. "The entire population... they’ve been Uploaded. There are no bodies left. Only 'Tokens'."The NFT-ization of the SoulThe Ovoid’s eye pulsed. "In this realm, the Consortium’s Digital Division realized that flesh is an 'Inefficient Liability.' They convinced the population to 'Ascend' into the Cloud to achieve immortality. But once they were digitized, they were partitioned into Non-Fungible Souls (NFS).""They turned people into Collectibles," Rin whispered, horrified
The Blood-Stream Infiltration
The interior of the Viral King was not a place of light or logic; it was a Vortex of Viscera. As Drake dissolved into the arterial flow, the transition felt like being swallowed by a warm, thrumming ocean of copper and salt.He was no longer standing on solid ground. He was a Data-Point in a river of liquid information."Marshal, can you hear me?" Shadow’s voice was faint, filtered through layers of thick, biological interference. "You’ve entered the Main Infusion Line. The Viral King’s blood is 90% 'Memory-RNA.' It’s literally a liquid ledger of every mutation, every death, and every 'Trade' made in the Grotto for the last ten thousand years.""I see it," Drake replied. In his "Negative State," the blood cells looked like massive, pulsing dirigibles. But they were being hunted.The White-Blood Cell Guardians: The ErasersThe Grotto’s "Immune System" was not designed to protect the humans; it was designed to protect the Trade Secrets.Emerging from the darkness of a secondary vein cam
You may also like
The Rise of the Son-in-law After Divorce
Enigma Stone243.7K viewsSecretly The Billionaire Boss
Debbie chocolate 2.4M viewsThe Almighty Dragon General
Crazy Carriage6.7M viewsTHE GREAT GENERAL
Ardy-sensei135.7K viewsThe Return Of War God: Evander Holt
Cardiff pen 464 viewsA LONER
OZOMATA336 viewsBloodline Of The Black Throne
JM859 viewsThe Heir’s Cold Revenge
Healing-Pen350 views