Free Web NovelChapter 5: The 1st Soul-Squad
[Rebooting system...]
[System successfully rebooted.]
[100X Returns System intiali— initiali— Ding! You have bypassed the Developer’s programming! You have obtained the Nexus Code: God-Tier Proficiency Returns!]
[Ding! A Constellation is impressed by your will to survive!]
[You have been marked by a Constellation!]
[You have received a Soul-Shard!]
[Ding! God-Tier Proficiency Returns has been activated! Your Soul Shard has bypassed it’s Conceptual Law!]
[You have obtained the Fragment of Origin!]
[You have gained a new ability!]
[Timeless (Level 1)]
..
Darkness.
That’s all he saw.
There was no pain, despite being eaten alive moments ago.
No sound.
No color.
Just his body body floating in a cold, endless and absolute void that stretched to infinity.
"W-where... Am I?" He mumbled to himself.
The silence pressed in.
He looked down at himself, then stared into the darkness.
The agonizing pain of being eaten alive was gone.
Even the Abyssal Demon was gone.
Then he arrived at the only conclusion.
"I’m dead... Aren’t I?"
The realization hit him, but weirdly, he felt a rush of ease.
Then his eyes went wide as a sudden presence pressed against his senses. He spun around, and he froze the second he saw it.
A massive pair of blue, glowing eyes glared back at him, ominous and unblinking.
He opened his mouth to speak, but his words failed him.
"Rentaro Mizuno." A deep, resonant voice echoed through the abyss, cutting straight into Rentaro’s very soul.
"H—How do you know my name? Who are you?" He finally found the courage to speak.
"You have great hatred and anger in your heart that rivals even mine. I have found favour in you, and I have deemed you worthy to carry on my will."
"Deem me worthy? What are you talking about?"
"My anger shall be your ally, and my wrath your weapon. Do you accept this fate?"
The voice in the abyss’s question was straight to the point, and it was a bit perplexing.
But here and now, that was all he felt, anger and hate. All the suffering the universe had heaped upon him had accumulated into a single, burning resolve, and now, he had a chance to set it right.
In a million years, he never imagined he would encounter something like this. Yet now, it was before him, a chance, a single opportunity to rewrite what had happened to him. And an opportunity to change his fate.
With a cold voice, he stared right back at the eyes in the abyss. "Yes."
Silence.
Even after he spoke, nothing changed. The eyes continued to stare unblinkingly, their intensity throwing him completely off guard.
"Is that all?" He asked, confused.
"To complete the assimilation, you need to know my name."
"And what is your name?"
Everything around him froze, as if time itself had paused to unveil the name of the entity that dwelled within the abyss.
Then in a word, the entity finally revealed itself.
"Chronos."
Rentaro’s eyes glowed with a faint blue hue, and he felt his body being grabbed by a powerful force into a swirling vortex.
GASP!
Then his eyes shot open, and he jolted his body upright, breathing heavily.
"W-Wha?" He blinked and looked around, his head was still heavy, but the roaring wind was gone.
The last memory he held was of drifting through purgatory, talking to the entity that resided within.
But that wasn’t the confusing part.
If his memory served him right, his arm was broken, and his leg consumed by the demon, but now, they were whole, firmly attached, as though it had never happened at all.
But it did.
He wasn’t an awakener, nor a Soul-Hunter, so he had no abilities in his arsenal that allowed him to heal and regenerate lost tissues.
Instead, he found himself in a quiet room lined with medical beds. Machines stood beside them, their lights blinking softly and giving off low, steady beeps.
The air felt cold and sterile, carrying a faint scent of disinfectants.
He tried to move, but something tugged at him.
Looking down, he saw wires and tubes connected to his body, leading into one of the machines beside his bed.
"An ECG monitor?" For a moment, he just stared confused, trying to understand how he ended up here.
Then. frёeωebɳovel.com
A sudden and vicious sharp ringing tore through Rentaro’s head. His eyes blurred from the pain he felt, and he cried out as his strength gave away.
He clutched his head with both hands, the sound screaming through his skull as the world spun around him.
[You have activated the Nexus Code: God-Tier Proficiency Returns!]
[You have successfully awakened the Class (Chronos)]
[You have gained an additional boost in your physical attributes.]
[10% increase in physical strength.]
[5% increase in agility and speed.]
[1% increase in constitution.]
The blur in his vision faded, the sharp ringing dulled, and the pain coursing through him slowly ebbed away just as a window materialized before his eyes.
[————Creator 401’s Status————]
[Name: Rentaro Mizuno]
[Age: 19]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 5]
[Experience: 4]
[Dexterity: 20]
[Stamina: 21]
[Agility: 23]
[Strength: 25]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Soul-Energy: 100/200]
[Soul-Core: Chronos (5% crafted)]
[Rank: Conceptual Law Breached. Your rank has evolved into the Grade 0 Upper Stage]
[Soul-Shard: Conceptual Law Breached. Your Soul-Shard has evolved into the Fragment of Origin.]
[Class Ability -
• Passive Skill — Timeless (1%)
-Skill description: There can’t be an end without a beginning.]
[Assimilation: 1%]
Rentaro stared at the window. Though the inscriptions on it were surprising, they didn’t confuse him, he already knew the answers to the question he had.
It was a System.
And because of it, his status had completely changed!
"But how? I’m certain I never awakened." Then it hit him.
"The Nexus Code?" His eyes shot open as he recalled the events that brought him into this world.
He was a carrier of the Nexus Virus, the moment the solstice arrives he was supposed to be transported into New Nexus, but something went wrong. And instead, he was transported here into the sanctuary.
What he didn’t realize was, the glitch that sent him here also brought the Nexus Code with him. The Nexus Code was the programming that merged Rentaro’s previous reality with the game, and now it seemed the glitch that brought him to this world provided him with something unearthly.
The God-Tier Proficiency Returns.
"The Nexus Code: God-Tier Returns?" He let out a small chuckle, shaking his head as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. It didn’t feel real.
Before the Nexus Virus broke out, he used to spend hours reading web novels, stories about strange systems that could give back ten times, a hundred times, even a thousand times whatever you gained as a reward. Back then, it had all just been fantasy, something to pass the time.
But now, standing here and facing something that felt so similar, he couldn’t help but laugh again. It was hard to believe that those ridiculous stories might not have been so far from reality after all.
But this was the first time he ever heard of a God-Tier Returns.
He stared at his hand, stunned by what he saw. He had gained a bit of weight, and not just a little.
The skinny figure he once was had vanished.
Now, he looked like an actual fed teenager, a flat stomach and chest, no more bony ribs, and calves that actually resembled a normal human legs.
"Is this because of the assimilation?"
A 10% increase in strength meant more developed muscles, and to build muscle, fat had to be added. The assimilation had done exactly that, transforming his body in the process.
"Chronos huh?"
That name was too familiar.
In folktales and mythologies, Chronos was the God of Time in Greek mythology, a name not to be casually thrown around in New Olympus.
He was a Primordial being, whose strength surpassed even that of Zeus, the ruler of the Olympian gods.
"Could that be the Chronos this status is referring?"
It sounded too good to be true, but the events that unfolded said otherwise.
"Ah, so you’re finally awake?" The door creaked open, and two men stepped inside, dressed in white shirts beneath a black jacket with matching pants. The first man wore his hair in a bowl cut and stood around five foot eleven.
While the second stood at around five foot nine.
"Incredible..." The second man rushed at Rentaro, examining his chest and arm, practically every injury that he sustained before he got here.
"Relax Ethan, allow him to properly recover." The first man said.
"R-right." The second man — Ethan, took a step back before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Forgive my partner, he’s a bit fascinated. It’s incredible how a non-awakener with no Soul-Energy was able to survive in the forest next to the Devil’s Playground. You truly are one of the luckiest people alive.."
"Who are you?" Rentaro asked bluntly. The man’s suit, his demeanor and expression. It brought back memories of the S.A.C, the bastards who killed his family.
"Where are my manners?" The man cleared his throat, then said. "My name is Levi Thawnesman, and I am the lieutenant of the 1st Soul-Squad."
