Prologue — The Pulse

  No one saw it coming.

  Not the scientists monitoring solar activity. Not the governments building their invisible walls. Not the corporations hoarding AI secrets. No one, not even the conspiracy theorists who lived in bunkers and ate canned beans, had predicted The Pulse.

  It happened at 03:12 AM UTC. A sharp, soundless ripple tore through the fabric of the world, like a shiver running down the spine of Earth itself. Electronics short-circuited. Satellites blinked out of the sky. For 6.8 seconds, gravity fluctuated.

  And then the messages appeared.

  Floating in the air. In the back of people's eyes. Reflected in mirrors. Burned into the clouds. Glitching neon-blue text that made the whole world stop and stare.

  [SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]

  You have been registered.

  Status interface unlocked.

  Begin protocol.

  Across the globe, every single person, man, woman, child, criminal, saint received their System.

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  Some passed out. Some screamed. Some laughed.

  A few... exploded.

  Within the first 24 hours, over 130 million people died.

  They called it System Shock, when the human mind couldn't handle the sudden flood of raw data and internal recalibration. The System was not optional. You either integrated, or you disintegrated.

  The survivors emerged into a new world. One with Stats. Levels. Abilities. Quests.

  And worst of all...

  Breaks.

  Zones where the fabric of reality warped, where monsters stepped out of myth, time ran crooked, and cities could vanish in minutes.

  But even in the madness, people adapted. Built Safe Zones. Formed factions. Created systems to manage the System.

  They thought they were in control.

  They were wrong.

  Two years later...

  In the dead streets of an abandoned district, a skinny teenager with cracked glasses and zero kills stood alone.

  His name was Rei Kuroda.

  Level 1.

  Strength: 4

  Durability: 3

  Agility: 5

  Speed: 6

  Intelligence: 9

  Willpower: 12

  Useless. Broken. Weak.

  Everyone said he would die first. Maybe he believed them. Maybe not.

  But the System didn't.

  [Unique Trait Unlocked: Accelerated Development]

  [Unique Trait Unlocked: Reactive Evolution]

  [Unique Trait Unlocked: Supernatural Willpower]

  Begin ascendance protocol.