The black void fractures into kaleidoscopic madness. A spiral of impossible colors spins around him. Symbols—runes, data, faces, languages—scream and sing at the same time.
He hears:
[ SYSTEM MERGE IN PROGRESS. ]
[ YOU HAVE INITIATED A FORBIDDEN SYNTHESIS. ]
[ CAUTION: NO PRECEDENT EXISTS FOR THIS ACTION. ]
[ .....REWRITING IDENTIFIER: ZERO.... ]
The fused card spins upward, and then:
EVERYTHING IS SUCKED IN.
The black void implodes.
His body. His thoughts. His history. All torn into pieces and poured into Truth.
A moment of absolute silence.
A single heartbeat.
[ WARNING: FORBIDDEN TIER. ]
[ User is in initial stage. X-Rank synthesis is not permitted. ]
[ System resisting creation... ]
"Wha-...WHY!?"
[ Override detected. ]
[ Resistance bypassed. ]
".....-_- That easy?"
[ FORBIDDEN card... created. ]
And then—
A message appears, alone in the blackness now surrounding him:
✧ [〚ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGN OF REALITY [X]〛~FORBIDDEN TIER~]
[ Forged through defiance, bound by insight, born of impossible fusion— ]
Colour: Indescribable. Every colour—and none. A living prism of creation and control.
And towering before him—
A monolith as tall as Mount Everest.
Not glowing. Not floating. But existing, like a law carved into the bones of the universe itself.
Next to it, Zero looked smaller than an ant—no, smaller than a particle of dust, barely distinguishable against the scale of the divine construct.
And yet, it pulsed to his rhythm.
It had emerged for him.
INHERITED TRAITS (Fully Enhanced):
— Currency Perception (Evolved): Sense the presence and flow of all forms of value nearby—material, digital, even abstract—along with the emotions and beliefs tied to them.
— Greedcraft (Ascended): Bind kings, ideas, even entire systems to your wealth. Control loyalty through concept-currency.
— Market Future Sight: Glimpse short-term and long-term economic shifts across timelines—predict crashes, booms, and rare opportunities before they exist.
— Total Extraction: Rip skills, memories, or essence from any source. Even gods can be plundered.
— Interdimensional Vault Access: Unlock shops and trades across parallel universes. Each with rules—each with prices.
— Cosmic Contracts: Forge unbreakable deals with entities beyond comprehension.
— Emotion Threadweaving: Subtly nudge emotions and perceptions in a crowd or opponent—leading their response to align with your intent.
— Mask of Infinite Faces: Change appearance, voice, and presence—Fools eyes, memories, even souls—Become anyone—Even gods may forget who Zero truly is.
— Strategic Override: Predict enemy actions up to several steps ahead based on pattern recognition. Useful in both combat and diplomacy.
— Aura of Obedience: Within your influence, even resistance feels like betrayal.
— Absolute Truth (Truth Integration):
See through lies, masks, and false selves. Rewrite identity. Bypass illusions and deceit entirely.
You do not detect truth. You enforce it.
PASSIVE: REALITY WARP
— All skills scale based on emotional intensity, system karma, and spiritual strain.
[ You have crafted an impossible path. ]
[ Designation 'Zero'… has ceased to be mere title. ]
[ You are now an anomaly in the architecture of fate. ]
[ You have created something that should not exist at this stage. ]
[ A fusion of this scale… is forbidden at the beginning. ]
[ This is not a gift. It is a fracture in design. ]
[ You must choose now, Zero— ]
[ Bind the 'Absolute Sovereign of Reality'… or abandon it forever. ]
Zero staggered slightly, eyes wide.
"Wait—wait—too much is happening at once! X-rank?? Forbidden? Should not exist what??"
His breath caught.
"Shouldn't this have been SSS instead? I mean... If two S-ranks = SS, two SS = SSS, two SSS = X…?
He counted mentally, panic flickering behind his eyes.
"I'm missing one S... I needed one more to make another SS... to then make SSS... and then finally reach X."
He looked up at the titanic card again, trembling slightly.
"Did I mess up the structure...?"
A pause.
Then, the System spoke:
[ "Incorrect." ]
[ SSS-Rank is the upper ceiling of structured systems—a construct for balance within predefined logic trees. ]
[ Truth… is not balanced. ]
[ Truth… is not part of structure. ]
[ The fusion you triggered between Truth, Universa, Extraction, Lord of the Coins, and Manipulation Mastery— ]
[ —bypassed every coded containment fail-safe. ]
[ The cards involved were not ordinary. Their internal power signatures exceeded standard classification. ]
[ Especially Truth—whose potential ranked beyond SS even before fusion. ]
[ Thus… the result is not SSS. ]
[ It is X. ]
[ You now possess something the System was never meant to allow. ]
[ One final time, Zero: Will you bind this forbidden construct— ]
[ —or reject it, and return to the structure of reality? ]
Zero stood silent.
Eyes locked on the card—the living anomaly, the sovereign of defiance.
His grip clenched. "I'm not letting it go."
His voice cracked slightly, but the intent behind it cut deeper than steel.
"I'll endure it. I'll survive it. And I still have more slots left..."
[ Acknowledged. Binding process: INITIATED. ]
The massive card turned into a beam of pure light—
—and pierced him. FWOOOOMMM—
It collided into Zero's chest with unreal force.
Not like energy entering flesh.
Like reality itself being carved into bone.
He screamed.
"GGGHHAAAGH—!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth—his nose—his eyes.
CRK-CHHHHHK!!
(Bones snapping. Muscles tearing.)
HHHHNNNNNHHH!
His veins lit up like molten wires.
His mind fractured in layers—flashes of truth, future, and falsehood spinning like blades.
He dropped to his knees.
Then collapsed on his side.
Trembling. Seizing.
"GGHH—! I… can't—GGGHH—!"
The void echoed with pain—not just physical.
The pain of becoming something else.
The pain of being seen by the multiverse… and not looking away.
Every ounce of sweat, every drop of blood, every scream inside his soul was ripped from him.
Like death—but longer.
Like birth—but darker.
And then—
Silence. No breath. No motion.
Just a single, soft sound—
thmp.
(A heartbeat.)
A second later—
THMP.
(A second one. Louder.)
Then—
THMP–THMP–THMP.
His body inhaled violently—
—and light poured from his eyes.
He wasn't gone. He wasn't broken. He had survived.
The forbidden power was his now.
Bound.
Branded.
Burning inside his bones.
A little later...
Zero stirred. His body felt like it had been put through a dimensional grinder and spat out the other side. Muscles twitched. Bones ached in ways that made no anatomical sense.
His eyes fluttered open slowly, vision swimming in residual light. He tried to sit up—failed. A sharp pain shot through his lower spine, and—
"Ah… shi—" he grimaced.
His pants were soaked.
Not in blood.
Not sweat.
Just... soaked.
The realization hit. He'd pissed himself. And his legs? Useless. He couldn't even sit straight. The soreness running up his back was suspiciously... compromising.
As if the universe hadn't just merged with him—but taken him from behind while doing it.
(If you know, you know.)
And yet…
He smiled.
Not the grin of a man victorious.
Not relief.
But something far stranger, buried under his skin like a guilty pleasure he wouldn't explain.
"…Worth it," he muttered hoarsely, staring into the fading glow of the void.
For reasons buried too deep for even him to name…
A part of him had liked it.
His hands trembled. Blood still crusted at the corners of his mouth. His vision blurred—but inside?
He felt alive. Bent, broken, nearly obliterated.
But alive.
[ SYSTEM WARNING ]
[ Fusion complete: 5 foundational cores absorbed. ]
[ Result: Formation of a non-standard, Forbidden Entity. ]
[ While 5 slots were consumed during initial construction, your base structure is now recalibrated. ]
Another tab slid into view.
A blinking line of golden script lit up in front of him:
[CARD SLOTS AVAILABLE: 4]
[STATUS: LOCKED 🔒]
Zero's eyes widened.
"What? Five slots used… but four available… but locked? HUH?"
The system replied—not with its usual cold tone, but slower. Calmer. Almost… cautious.
[ Your framework remains technically compatible with additional system integrations. ]
[ However, your current system's power—Truth-based, unbounded, non-anchored—is not designed for early multiplicity. ]
[ Attempting to absorb another card now—of any rank—would trigger recursive overload. ]
[ You would not merely fail to process it… You would cease to exist. ]
A pause. Just long enough to make the truth hit.
[ To protect the core, four system slots have been temporarily locked. ]
[ They will remain locked until certain global or existential thresholds are met. ]
[ This is not punishment. ]
[ It is containment. ]
The interface pulsed—then displayed:
[UNLOCK CONDITIONS — UNKNOWN]
Progression tied to:
– Reality Anchoring
– Karma Stabilization
– Identity Maturity
– First Impact
The void around Zero began to shift—not cracking, not collapsing—but… releasing.
He drifted down gently as faint gravity returned. The air felt thicker now. Realer.
The System's voice returned one last time, softer… personal:
[ You have four future choices… But you must become more than what you are to survive them. ]
[ Until then… the world awaits you, Zero. ]
[ No—Absolute Sovereign of Reality. ]
"So I can't—wah—!!?"
Zero didn't even finish the sentence.
There was no warning.
No countdown.
Just a snap—a pulse, like space itself hiccupping—
—and his spine was yanked backward, ripped through an unseen slit in the Void.
WHOOSH—
He wasn't falling through air.
He was falling through data.
Through his own system pathways, unraveling the cosmic code like silk torn from a god's robe.
His vision fractured—
Flashes of his new architecture screamed past:
— Floating strings of stock data from markets that didn't even exist yet
— Blueprints of devices not yet invented
— Emotional heatmaps of people across the globe
— And himself—a glowing silhouette wrapped in a suit made not of cloth, but concepts
And then—
THUMP—!
He landed hard.
Back-first.
His mattress groaned beneath him.
The ceiling above, with its old cracked paint and stained bulb, welcomed him like an unwanted memory.
He was home.
Same faded sheets.
Same half-torn power bill.
Same smell of old socks and unwashed time.
But now…
Everything was different.
He didn't feel like he was lying on the bed.
He felt like the room was lying beneathhim.
His breath evened.
The system pulsed gently now—no longer separate.
It was inside him.
Not a voice. Not a program.
A second heartbeat.
A notification flickered into his vision—faint, steady:
[Status: Stabilizing Core into Physical Dimension...]
[Local Data Streams Detected.]
[World Access: UNLOCKED]
[ Awaiting first directive, Absolute Sovereign of Reality. ]
[What will you build first?]
Zero's heart pounded.
This rotting, corrupted country—the place that mocked him, broke him, left him to rot—
It had no idea.
But he had returned.
And he wasn't here to survive anymore.
He was here to own.