The ground trembled beneath Rex's boots.
A dust storm rolled across the dead plains — but it wasn't wind. It was footsteps. Hundreds of them.
They were coming.
[Global Bounty: Fallen King — 1,000,000 EXP.]
[Target Last Seen: Ruins of Novalis.]
Every player, scavenger, and survivor across the broken world saw the alert.
And greed spoke louder than reason.
Rex crouched behind a fallen tower, watching as shapes moved through the haze — a dozen players armed with scavenged weapons. Their armor flickered like broken pixels, their eyes cold and hungry.
"Found him!" someone shouted.
Rex's pulse spiked. He turned his wrist, focusing on the blue flame that now pulsed beneath his skin. Reality Rewrite.
"Come on," he muttered. "Don't glitch on me now."
The first arrow flew. He dodged—barely—and slammed his palm to the ground.
[Reality Rewrite — Fragment Active.]
The cracked dirt beneath the attackers warped. Their feet sank into shifting code as if the world itself was melting.
They screamed as the ground swallowed them halfway, the terrain rewriting itself into liquid stone.
But the skill burned through Rex's arm like acid.
He gritted his teeth, veins glowing with unstable light.
[Warning — Reality Overload Detected.]
[Stability: 22%.]
He collapsed to one knee, gasping. The rewrite stopped mid-process, leaving one of the hunters half-merged into the earth — alive, screaming.
The rest backed away in horror.
"What the hell is he?!"
Rex stood, sweat dripping down his face. "You wanted a bounty? Collect it if you can."
He dashed forward. His movements were sharper, faster. Instinct and system merged into something terrifying.
A blade sliced through the air — Rex caught it with his bare hand, twisting it away. The attacker's HUD flickered before the man exploded into red shards.
[Kill Confirmed — EXP +50.]
But something was wrong. The red shards didn't fade. They drifted toward Rex — into him — sinking beneath his skin.
[Warning — Data Corruption Detected.]
[Virus Absorbed. System Integrity -3%.]
He staggered, choking.
"What… is happening to me?"
From the distance, a figure watched through the static.
A hooded woman, her voice crackling through the void.
"The Fallen King has activated Rewrite… just like before."
Another voice replied — deep, metallic, emotionless.
"Then the countdown has begun."
Rex finally stopped running when he reached the edge of the plains. His body felt heavy — not from exhaustion, but from the weight of new power twisting inside him.
He looked at his hands, blue and red data flames flickering between his fingers.
"Every time I use this… it eats away at me."
A faint whisper echoed in his mind — Seris's voice.
"Power never comes without loss, Rex. The system learned that from you."
He clenched his fists.
If this world wanted him to die again, it would have to burn first.
"Fine," he said quietly. "Let the hunt begin."
Behind him, the sky pulsed red — the bounty timer ticking down.
And somewhere out there, his first real enemy was already moving.