The apocalypse came, and the world burned. But when the universe's rules collapsed, I was given the authority to rewrite them. Omni-Soul Codex Binding: Complete. From this moment on, zombies, beasts, gods, and laws themselves… exist only to be absorbed by Luo Feng.
The air was a furnace, thick with the ghosts of incinerated cities. Above, the sky wept fire. Meteor storms, once a harbinger of doom, were now just part of the scenery—a perpetual, silent light show illuminating the corpse of our world. I stood in the skeletal remains of what was once Shanghai, a concrete jungle now choked with rivers of molten glass and skyscrapers that sagged like weeping titans, spewing ash from their shattered peaks. Every gust of wind was a sandpaper rasp against my skin, carrying the stench of ozone, decay, and something else… something alien and fundamentally wrong. This world was ending. No, it had already ended. We were just the maggots crawling through its carcass.
My name was Luo Feng. A name as common and meaningless as the dust I kicked with my worn-out boots. Before the Fracture, I was a nobody. No prestigious family, no exceptional talents, no dazzling future waiting for me. Just another face in a crowd of billions. When the sky broke and horrors poured out, that status didn't change. I was still a nobody, just a luckier, more pathetic kind of nobody who had managed to not die yet.
My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs, a primal drumbeat in the oppressive silence of the underground. I was deep within a collapsed subway tunnel, the metallic taste of fear and stale air coating my tongue. My goal was simple, pathetic even: a bottle of water, maybe a forgotten can of food. Survival was a game of inches, of hoarding scraps that the mutant beasts and shambling dead overlooked. It was in this desperate, lightless pursuit that my world, and all of reality with it, tilted on its axis.
A tremor, not from the earth but from the air itself, shook the tunnel. Dust rained from the ceiling. A low hum vibrated through my bones, and then, directly above me, the fabric of space tore. It didn't explode; it fractured like flawed crystal, a jagged, shimmering fissure of impossible colors splitting the darkness. The air crackled with a power so immense it felt like a physical weight, pressing down, suffocating me. This was no meteor. This was a gate.
From the shimmering tear, a cold mist billowed forth, instantly dropping the tunnel's temperature by fifty degrees. The humid furnace became an icebox. And then, they came.
One after another, they dropped from the rift, landing with the heavy crunch of bone on shattered concrete. They were skeletal monstrosities, each easily eight feet tall, their bodies fashioned from what looked like jagged, frost-rimed bone. Their empty sockets burned with a malevolent blue light, and their claws were sharpened shards of ice that scraped long furrows in the ground as they moved. They were nothing like the common Tier-1 shamblers I'd learned to evade. Their aura was a suffocating wave of dread and cold, a palpable declaration of power.
My blood ran cold. My Tier-0 body, fragile and unenhanced, screamed at me to run, to hide, to simply cease existing. I fumbled for the rusty pipe I called a weapon, my hands shaking so violently it slipped and clattered uselessly to the floor. Panic was a physical entity, a clawed hand wrapped around my throat. There were dozens of them. A horde. And I was trapped.
One of the skeletal beasts fixed its burning blue gaze on me. It let out a guttural roar that wasn't sound but a vibration of pure, unadulterated cold that seemed to freeze the very air in my lungs. It lunged, covering twenty meters in a single, terrifying bound. Debris sprayed as it landed before me, its immense shadow swallowing me whole. I scrambled backward, my back hitting the cold, unyielding wall of the tunnel. There was nowhere to go. This was it. The end of a meaningless life, snuffed out in a forgotten hole by a monster from another reality.
The creature raised a massive club forged of bone and ice. I could see the intricate frost patterns webbing its surface, beautiful and deadly. My entire life—or the lack thereof—flashed before my eyes. A pointless reel of mediocrity. As the club began its descent, time seemed to stretch, to warp. The roar of the beast faded into a dull drone. My thundering heartbeat became a slow, solitary drum. Thump… Thump… Thump… My vision tunneled, the world dissolving into a pinprick of light focused on the descending weapon of my execution. This is how a mortal dies. Powerless. Forgotten.
And then, the universe answered.
A light, not from the monster or the rift, but from within my own consciousness, bloomed behind my eyes. A serene, text-based interface superimposed itself over my vision, blocking out the sight of my impending death with its cold, divine authority.
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[OMNI-SOUL CODEX PROTOCOL: INITIALIZING…]
[DETECTING IMMINENT HOST THREAT… THREAT CONFIRMED.]
[FORGING SOUL-BIND… COMPLETE.]
[UNIVERSAL ESSENCE SCAN: ENGAGED]
[INFINITE INTEGRATION PROTOCOL: ACTIVATED]
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The pain, the fear, the crushing despair—it all vanished, replaced by an icy, analytical clarity that was not my own. My perspective shifted. The world was no longer just matter. It was data. Energy. Law. A faint, colored aura now surrounded every creature in the tunnel. The skeletal horrors glowed with a pale blue light, a clear indicator of their essence. My own body, in contrast, was a dim, almost nonexistent grey.
What is this power? The thought was not born of panic, but of a sudden, ruthless curiosity. This was a tool. An authority. As the bone club was mere inches from my skull, the new power in my soul acted.
Life Essence Trace—Detected: Zombie Lord, Tier 3.
The information flowed into me, seamless and absolute. The creature before me was not just a monster; it was a Frostbone Tyrant, a Tier-3 Zombie Lord. And as this understanding dawned, the Omni-Soul Codex presented me with a choice—or rather, a function. A silent, instinctive command left my will, and a new panel flooded my vision.
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IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END
[ESSENCE SCAN COMPLETE]
Target: Frostbone Tyrant – Tier 3 Zombie Lord
➤ Physical: Cryo-Bone Reinforcement (+30% Defense)
➤ Elemental: Frost Nova Burst (Intermediate Law of Ice – 7%)
➤ Resistance: Cold +25%
➤ Evolution Path: Ice-Bound Undead King – Potential Lawmaster Tier
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The sensation was indescribable. It was not a physical touch, but a spiritual one. A wave of ethereal energy swept from me and washed over the Frostbone Tyrant, a numbing tingle that felt like my very soul was reaching out and reading its existence. The data stream that returned was instantaneous, a torrent of comprehension that flooded my mind. I didn't just know what Cryo-Bone Reinforcement was; I understood its fundamental structure, the way frost energy could be woven into calcium to create a substance harder than steel.
Integrate. The command was absolute. Integrate Physical Trait: Cryo-Bone Reinforcement.
A flash of searing cold erupted from my core, a pain so intense it was almost pleasure. I felt my skeleton groan, my very marrow flash-freezing and then reforming. A thin, visible layer of shimmering frost bloomed across my skin, hardening it into a pale, bluish armor. My bones became dense, resilient, infused with the essence of a Tier-3 monster. The change was not cosmetic; it was fundamental. It was evolution, brutal and instantaneous.
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IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END
[CRYO-BONE REINFORCEMENT: INTEGRATION SUCCESSFUL]
[PHYSICAL DEFENSE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED.]
[FROST NANO-SPHERES DEPLOYED AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL.]
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The bone club, which should have pulverized my skull into a red paste, finally connected.
CLANG!
The sound was not the wet crunch of bone, but the shriek of metal on metal. The club, a weapon that could shatter concrete, bounced off my head with a shower of icy sparks. My neck snapped back from the force, but my skull remained intact, protected by a new, integrated power. The Frostbone Tyrant recoiled, its burning blue eyes flickering with what I could only describe as confusion. It had expected to kill a Tier-0 mortal. It had found something else entirely.
I rose to my feet, the crushing pressure of its aura now feeling like a mild chill. Power, raw and untamed, coursed through me. It wasn't just the defensive trait I had taken. By scanning the Tyrant, I had also tasted its command over the elements. The knowledge of the Frost Nova Burst was now mine, an instinctual understanding of the Intermediate Law of Ice.
I lifted my hand, no longer a limb of flesh and blood, but a conduit for primordial cold. The frost on my skin coalesced around my palm, swirling into a miniature blizzard of razor-sharp ice shards. The air itself seemed to groan under the strain.
"My turn," I whispered, my voice raspy and laced with an unnatural cold.
I unleashed it. Not with a shout, but with a simple exertion of will. An explosive sphere of cryogenic energy erupted from my palm. The Frost Nova wasn't just cold; it was the absolute concept of stillness, expanding at the speed of a shockwave. The Frostbone Tyrant that had struck me was at the epicenter. Its bones, already infused with ice, shattered into a million pieces as the superior law overwhelmed its own. It didn't even have time to register its own destruction.
The nova expanded, washing over the entire horde. The other Tyrants, who had been charging forward, convulsed as the wave of absolute zero hit them. Their bodies, built for the cold, were torn apart by a purer, more violent expression of the same element. Their blue soul-lights flickered and died, their bodies freezing solid before exploding into clouds of bone dust and ice crystals.
In seconds, the tunnel was silent, the only sound the faint cracking of residual ice on the walls. The oppressive, soul-crushing aura of the Zombie Lords was gone, replaced by the thrum of my own newfound power. I stood in the epicenter of the destruction I had wrought, my breathing heavy, my eyes glowing with a faint blue light. A single Tier-0 human had just annihilated a horde of Tier-3 elites. The rules of the world had just been broken. And I was the one holding the pen.
As the last echoes of the blast faded, a new notification shimmered into existence before me. It was a reward, a spoil of war taken not from their bodies, but from their very essence.
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IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END
[BATTLE REWARD: LAWSEED ACQUIRED]
Seed: Intermediate Ice Law
Progress: 7% → 9%
Next Threshold: 20% (Elite Law Initiate)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
I clenched my fist, feeling the raw power of ice thrumming beneath my reinforced skin. Seven percent. My scan had granted me comprehension of the Law of Ice at a 7% threshold. The act of destroying the Tyrants with their own element had deepened that understanding, pushing it to 9%. The growth was quantifiable, immediate, and without limit. I started this fight as a Tier-0 mortal, a speck of dust. Now… now I could reshape ice itself, wielding a power that pre-Fracture governments would have sold their nations for.
A plan, cold and sharp as a shard of ice, began to form in my mind. This was just the beginning. I needed more scans. More abilities. I needed to find stronger creatures, absorb more powerful laws, and evolve at a rate this broken world couldn't possibly comprehend.
As if in answer to my ambition, my new senses, heightened by the Codex, detected something far off. It was a faint, pulsing aura, a crimson glow emanating from a deep chasm miles away that had been ripped open by a meteor. This aura was different. It wasn't the cold, dead energy of the undead. It was hot, ferocious, and savagely alive. It pulsed with a power that made the Tier-3 Tyrants feel like insects. A Beast King. At least Tier-4.
Before I could even contemplate my next move, the Codex, this infinite authority bound to my soul, revealed another of its secrets.
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IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END
[INFINITY REALM INITIALIZING…]
Realm Seed: Activated
Current Level: World Seed
Features Unlocked:
● Beast Garden (Level 1)
● Accelerator Chamber (Level 1)
● Survivor Sanctuary (Level 1)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The world beneath my feet dissolved. The concrete floor of the subway tunnel fell away into a void, but I did not fall. Instead, I was gently lowered into a space that defied logic. I stood on a floating island of lush, emerald grass under a sky of swirling, nascent nebulae. Before me, crystalline spires hummed with energy, and in the distance, I could hear the roars of beasts that were not yet born. A spring bubbled with water so pure it seemed to shimmer with liquid mana. Time felt different here—faster, yet calmer. This was a pocket world. My world.
Here, I can cultivate, research, and experiment without danger, I thought, a sense of absolute awe washing over me. The Accelerator Chamber can dilate time. The Beast Gardens can breed creatures for me to scan, endlessly. This isn't just a sanctuary. It's the cradle for my new empire.
With a thought, I returned to the cold, dark ruin of the subway tunnel. The transition was seamless. The Infinity Realm was a part of me now, as much as my own heart. The distant crimson glow from the chasm seemed to intensify, and a low tremor shook the ground, carrying with it an aura of pure, unbridled ferocity. The King was aware. It had felt the explosive release of my ice law. It felt a challenge.
The Omni-Soul Codex responded instantly, its analytical gaze piercing through miles of rock and ruin.
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IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_START
IGNORE_WHEN_COPYING_END
[THREAT DETECTED]
Target: Crimson Ridgehound – Tier 4 Beast King
Distance: 3.2 km
Potential Loot:
● Physical: Inferno-Flecked Hide
● Elemental: Scorching Chain Blaze (Advanced Law of Fire)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
My heart, now steady and strong in my reinforced chest, began to pound with a new rhythm—not of fear, but of ravenous ambition. The Law of Fire. Advanced. I gripped my hands, the frost on my skin crackling as I made a fist. The cold energy within me swirled, hungry.
"Crimson Ridgehound," I murmured, my voice a low growl that echoed in the frozen silence. "Your fire will meet my frost—and when I consume your essence, the apocalypse itself will learn to quake before the name Luo Feng."