Chris stared at the ceiling of his apartment long after Nia left. The room felt too quiet now, his own breath too loud in his ears. The weight of her words clung to him:
"Be a tycoon. You want real power on Earth? Start acting like it."
She wasn't wrong.
The Tower had forged him into something beyond human—something Earth didn't yet have a place for. But if he was going to survive what was coming, he needed more than strength. He needed infrastructure. He needed wealth. And most of all… he needed to prepare for Mars.
So that morning, he set a new goal: start building an empire.
⸻
The first step was revisiting the Tower.
As the sun crept into the sky, Chris warped into its inner halls—no longer a stranger to its shifting gravity or haunted walls. The cleared floors were calm now, designed for training and grinding. The monsters were still dangerous, but they no longer possessed the dreadful sentience or soul-ripping aura of the real Tower trials.
He found what he was looking for quickly: a mineral beast.
The creature loomed over him like a living boulder, jagged and silver-veined, its eyes burning like coals.
Chris drew his blade. "Alright, rockhead. Let's make rent."
The fight was clean. Brutal. But clean.
His phantom sword art made quick work of its movements. His improved physicality danced through its heavy swings. And his Echo Pulse painted its vulnerabilities like brush strokes on a canvas.
When it finally dropped, the beast crumbled—shattering into dozens of glittering fragments.
[Monster Defeated – Soul Absorbed]
[Lesser Soul x 6 Acquired]
[You have gained: Polished Tungsten Ore, Dark Silver Core, Sunstone Shard]
Chris raised an eyebrow. "Sunstone?"
Another message followed.
"You have begun affecting the rules of reality. Basic storage capability integrated."
Chris exhaled.
So this is what the system meant by divinity.
Just by becoming stronger… his presence warped the laws around him. The Tower adapted. The world bent. And the loot system—drops—had begun.
He focused, and a new window appeared: a simple interface with dozens of empty squares. The materials shimmered softly inside it. No weight. No space taken in the real world.
Now he could gather. Now he could build.
"Alright," he muttered, "let's become a tycoon."
⸻
Over the next few days, Chris dove again and again.
Each monster felled gave him materials. Gold-thread bark. Liquid steel. Flamehide leather. His Inventory expanded. His pockets thickened.
He'd kept quiet about it, but even the system began to comment.
[You are beginning to shape Earth's system through passive divinity collection.]
[Material acquisition unlocked: Reality influence detected.]
[Warning: System inquiries may be restricted due to current system version – 0.81]
Still no 1.0. Still no clear answers.
He tried asking direct questions.
"What's the Chris System doing to Earth?"
[Insufficient system level. Limited response: The 'Chris System' is an echo of your divinity. It reshapes Earth's rules according to your growth.]
He frowned. "Then why can't I control it?"
[You are not a god yet.]
Fair.
⸻
Back in the apartment, Nia sat cross-legged on the floor, flipping through a physical printout of her system screen. She was training now, blasting targets in the makeshift alley range Chris had set up with weak light magic. Her control was sloppy, but promising.
"You weren't lying," she said, eyes glowing faintly. "This thing actually has skill trees."
"Not just trees," Chris said, walking in from the hallway. "Forests."
She grinned. "I leveled up again last night. Just from healing myself during practice."
"Good," he said. "You'll need it."
He tossed a glowing piece of quartz on the table. It pulsed red.
"What's this?"
"Fire Resonance Core," he said. "Dropped it off a Hell Lizard in the Tower. Worth a few grand, or we can use it to upgrade a piece of equipment."
Nia blinked. "You're serious about this tycoon thing, huh?"
Chris nodded. "It's not just money. It's leverage. Resources. Power. Earth's catching up to what I've already seen—and I need to stay ahead."
She leaned back. "And all that from fighting monsters."
He glanced out the window. The sun was dipping low again.
"You haven't seen what's out there yet."
⸻
Later that night, Chris stood alone in the basement of the building—the old boiler room, now converted into a storage space for his ores and magical items.
He placed his hand over one of the mineral crates. His system flickered.
[Crafting System – Locked]
[Version 1.0 required for activation]
[Hint: Collect divine materials, great souls, and conquer planetary towers to unlock crafting functions.]
He sighed.
"Everything's locked behind Mars."
He turned his palm and summoned the Inventory. Items flickered in the void-space before him.
If this was just the beginning… what would it look like when he truly reached godhood?
And if Nia had awakened, how many others would?
How long until Earth realized a new era had already begun?
The countdown to Mars ticked in the corner of his vision:
[6 Days Until Deployment]
Chris closed his eyes.
He would gather. He would train. He would build.
Because when the time came…
The real game would begin.