He woke gasping; his chest still devoured the black fire with jagged beats.
Around him a deep silence lay like a funeral, the air heavy with the scent of stubborn ash. He looked up at the unfathomable sky — then heard a mechanical voice emerge from the void, armed with an unforgiving cold:
"Resurrection Code activated. Two choices before you: accept power, or be severed into oblivion. Tell me: do you accept?"
Kim froze for a moment, as if the words came from another realm. His eyes flickered like burning coal, and he whispered with a bitterness his chest could not hide:
"How… how did you bring me back to life?"
The system answered in a dry, tinny voice:
"Your final will was the trigger. I mediate. I give and I balance. Accept, and power is granted. Refuse, and you return to nothingness."
His heart swelled with something between rage and despair. He rose heavily, clutching his chest as if trying to hold something that might flee:
"I refuse. I will not be your plaything, nor your slave."
The system hissed, a seductive tone sliding like poison:
"Refuse now if you wish, but brave boys soon regret. I can raise you above humans — speed, strength, breath unmeasured. I can take you out of this hell. I can… restore your family to life, once more."
A furious spark ignited across Kim's features. He shot up like lightning, eyes blazing with dark radiance:
"You bring them back?!" he screamed, his voice shattering like glass. "You keep talking! If you don't get out of my head now I'll kill you — wait, someone revived me once already! Who revived me the first time? If a human revived me, I'd rather die human. But to be your toy — impossible!"
The system hesitated, then replied with cold, curt steel:
"Offers are rare, and the price… payable."
Suddenly the air before him thinned, and from the darkness a smaller black screen rose, its stature like a long shadow, its words dim but heavy with eternal authority. The tone grew older, deeper, like the echo of graves:
"I see what your little machines cannot. I offer more than hollow promises — I offer an immeasurable truth. Kim… I do not come to abase you. I, too… am pleased with you. I want you as my king. Not a slave, but a lord of the night."
The air burned silently. Something in his chest answered, not his humanity but a cold hunger: the idea of being a king. The first system faltered as if a wire had been cut, then its voice crumbled like falling ash:
"Unauthorized interference attempt… retract."
But the black voice did not vanish. With a tone that mixed temptation and threat it whispered:
"Do as you will now, Kim. Choose your path. If you have a future, you will know the truth of your power. Accept me, and I will let you remake the world into your mirror. Refuse… and remain alone with your flame."
Kim's body trembled from pain, fury, and the lure of authority. He smiled — a smile with no mercy in it:
"If you have time, it will surely reveal your stance. Come if you own dominion — but if you're merely a wailing shadow, be silent now!"
The black voice faded gradually, yet its words remained as scars in the night. The void returned to whispering, and the dark panel hovered in the air, its symbols bleeding as if stoking the wait.
Kim stood up; the black fire bared from his chest like a flag announcing war:
"Fine," he said with lethal cold, "then I will set the world ablaze so it knows my name. From now on I will accept no promises without action. If you want me, come — I will show you how darkness is returned to its owners."
The air ignited. The city bowed before his steps. Inside — two systems, an ancient shadow, and a hero risen from the graves now marched with steady steps toward a vengeance that would burn everything.