The industrial cleaver didn't slice; it crushed. The weight of the 42-pound alloy slab, propelled by Cole's frantic two-week conditioning and the momentum of his leap, smashed through the Scout-Class Void Crawler's secondary thorax.
A spray of viscous, neon-blue ichor coated Cole's face. It burned like acid, but he didn't flinch. He felt a savage, self-righteous thrill.
The creature screeched, a sound like metal grinding against glass. It spun, its serrated mandibles snapping inches from Cole's throat. Its bio-electric wings hummed, sending a jolt of static through the air that made Cole's hair stand on end.
"Not so perfect, are you?" Cole hissed, his boots skidding on the magnetic rail as he readjusted his grip.
---
[SYSTEM INTEGRATION: 45%]
[PHYSIQUE ANALYSIS: SUPERIOR DENSITY DETECTED]
[AMBITION RATING: ERROR – SCALE OVERFLOW]
---
The Void Crawler lunged. Cole didn't have the luxury of martial arts forms; he had the pragmatism of a butcher. He stepped inside the creature's reach, taking a bruising hit from its chitinous shoulder to deliver a short, brutal upward swing.
The edge he had spent thirty-six hours grinding caught the soft tissue beneath the monster's head. With a guttural roar of effort, Cole twisted the blade and ripped outward.
The dragonfly-thing collapsed, its translucent wings fluttering weakly before going still.
Cole stood over the carcass, chest heaving, his skin stained with blue blood. Around him, New Boston was a hellscape of screaming people and crashing machines. But for Cole, the world had finally slowed down. The "Hollow Utopia" was dead. The real world had begun.
The golden window in his vision suddenly expanded, blindingly bright, drowning out the red-tinted remnants of his hacked Iris.
---
[WORLD GENESIS COMPLETE]
[EVALUATION FINISHED]
[USER: COLE TURNER]
[RANK: SSS (POTENTIAL)] / [CURRENT RANK: F]
[CLASS: UNASSIGNED]
[UNIQUE TRAIT AWAKENED: SOVEREIGN'S ARROGANCE]
* Effect: Immune to mental suppression. Your willpower determines the potency of your Qi. The more you believe you are superior, the faster your cultivation grows.
[SKILL ACQUIRED: DISSECTION ANALYSIS (LEVEL 1)]
* Effect: You can identify the weaknesses and material value of any dungeon creature by sight.
[QI CIRCULATION INITIATED: 1.0%]
---
Cole stared at the "SSS" potential. He didn't feel surprised. He felt acknowledged. He looked at the "Sovereign's Arrogance" trait and let out a cold, sharp laugh. The system didn't give him a hero's soul; it gave him a tool that matched his narcissism.
"Sovereign," he whispered, the word tasting better than any synthetic meal James had ever served him.
He turned his gaze back to the Void Crawler's corpse. His new skill, Dissection Analysis, pulsed. The creature's body began to glow with faint lines, showing him exactly where to cut to find its "Mana Core"—the battery that powered its bio-electricity.
He knelt, his cleaver already moving. "Study the abilities, learn the skills, kill the gods," he muttered.
High above, more rifts were opening. The sky was no longer a veil; it was a shattered glass ceiling. From the MIT campus, he could hear the sirens of the Peacekeepers, finally arriving to face a threat they weren't programmed to understand.
Cole ignored them. He wasn't a Peacekeeper. He wasn't a son. He was a cultivator in a world of data, and he had a head start on the apocalypse.
"Jake," Cole thought of his brother's martial arts. "You wanted to hit things to feel real? Wait until you see what I do with this world."
He stood up, holding a pulsating blue crystal the size of a marble.
---
[OBJECT ACQUIRED: LOW-GRADE VOID CORE]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ABSORB FOR QI?]
---
"Absorb," Cole commanded.
He didn't care if it was dangerous. He didn't care if it was selfish. He was the Firstborn, and he was taking his inheritance.
----------
[Character Status Update]
[Condition: Awakening Complete]
[Current Rank: F (Growth Rate: MAX)]
[Skill: Dissection Analysis (Lv.1)]
[Qi Level: 1.2%]