"Wha– what now…?" Zero muttered, his voice quiet, uncertain.
The system panels hovered silently in the air. No beeps. No text. No movement.
Just... stillness.
He looked around.
The air was heavy. The bulb above gave off its usual dying flicker, and the sound of distant traffic mixed with something else—
crrrk…
crrk-crrk…
Crickets.
Mocking.
A whole damn world had just shifted, and the only reply was a few insects outside his busted window.
He rolled his eyes.
'Seriously...? After all that?'
Then—finally—the screen pulsed.
Dim.
Then brighter.
Then steady.
[Responding…]
[Initializing Guided Sovereign Protocol – v0.1 Beta]
[Current User State: Post-Integration || Status: Stable (Mostly)]
He blinked.
"Stable... mostly?" he echoed.
Another pause.
Then:
[Advisable Action: Access Primary Questline or View System Message]
A low grunt left his throat.
He let the back of his head fall against the cracked wall behind him.
"...That's it?"
The panel pulsed again. Once.
Twice.
Slow. Like a blink. Like it was bored of him too.
Then a single message:
[That is sufficient for now.]
He stared at it.
Then narrowed his eyes.
"Right. Super advanced system that can twist reality but can't handle a proper conversation."
A short breath escaped him—half-laugh, half-tired sigh.
Then, he reached forward and tapped the 🎯 Quests tab.
"...Fine. Let's see what you're hiding."
The interface shimmered—then loaded.
Text formed, smooth and deliberate.
🎯 QUESTS
Main Quests: No Quest available
• Side Quests:
• Chain Quests:
• Faction Quests:
Zero stared at it for a long second.
Then again.
Then leaned in a little, as if the text might change if he looked harder.
"…You gotta be kidding me."
Nothing.
Not even a tutorial quest. No "Kill 3 rats," no "Talk to some shady old man." Not even a placeholder.
'The hell kind of game launches with no quests?'
He backed out of the menu, muttering,
"...No main quests. No side quests. No factions. Not even a fake objective. Just great."
His eye twitched.
A pause.
Then he clicked on shop.
🛒 SHOP – Universa
Coins: 🪙 999,999
Categories:
➤ Potions & Recovery
➤ Weapons & Armor
➤ Skill
➤ Scrolls (Locked, N/A)
➤ Summons (Locked)
➤Contracts
➤ Limited Time Offers 🔥
➤ Mystery Box (???)
➤ ....
Purchase History
Wish List
Linked Card Ability:
Interdimensional Vault Access — Unlock shops and trades across parallel universes. Each with rules—each with prices.
Zero let out a slow whistle.
"…Now this looks more like it."
He scrolled lazily through the tabs, eyes flicking across strange names, odd icons, and prices that ranged from a few dozen coins to hundreds of thousands.
Some entries were blank. Some—glitched out entirely.
A few just pulsed ??? in red.
But one thing was clear—
He could buy things that shouldn't exist.
Things that broke logic. Things that whispered stories just from their names.
"What is this companions/contract—"
—Click.
The screen shifted with a gentle glow, unfolding a new set of menus—clean and far too empty.
👥 COMPANIONS / CONTRACTS
— Companions —
• Active Companion: [Name / Species / Bond Rank]
• Contracted Entities:
[Name] —
[Type: Spirit / Demon / Beast / Artifact]
[Loyalty Level / Control Risk]
• Summon Slots: [Used 0 / Max 0]
• Fusion or Merge Options: [Locked 🔒]
• Shared Skills: [If Any]
• Soul Link Status: [None]
He frowned.
Empty. Just like the quests.
No names. No ranks. No creatures or spirits or demonic swords whispering in his ear.
Just... blank spaces and locked features.
He scrolled down.
Another section.
— Contracts —
• Subordinate Contract
• Slave Contract
• Trade Contract
• ...
Each one had a greyed-out tag beside it.
[Requires Acquisition]
Zero's brow twitched.
"...So they exist, but I don't have any. And these things aren't free."
He thought for a second. Then tapped around. No results. No generation, no freebies.
'Which means...'
He narrowed his eyes.
'These aren't just system defaults. I have to buy them.'
A soft sigh. Then a quiet click.
He exited the tab, flipping back to the Main Screen.
The central dashboard pulsed gently—calm and controlled.
But this time, his eyes drifted to the Bottom-Left corner of the interface.
To something he had ignored until now.
🪙 Coins: 999,999
He stared.
Then leaned back slowly.
"...That's... a lot of zeroes."
He stared at the number again.
999,999.
A beat of silence passed.
Then, unexpectedly—
[That is 9. Not 0.]
Zero blinked.
"...Huh?"
He looked again.
Nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine.
"...Still feels like cheating," he muttered.
"Why do I even have that much?"
The system didn't delay this time.
[📄 System Message:]
[Source: Lord of the Coins [S] – Merged Component]
[Merged Trait – "Sovereign Coin Authority" Initial wealth granted based on systemic potential, rarity of fusion, and economy disruption quotient.]
[Note: Value may change based on domain, usage, and narrative influence.]
Zero's eyes narrowed.
"...So, because I forced that coin card into the fusion..."
[Correct.]
"...You're telling me I started with enough to buy a small nation?"
[Incorrect.]
[That amount would only buy a weak nation.]
He blinked again.
Then exhaled through his nose, shoulders dropping as he stared at the glowing currency count like it might bite him.
"...Of course."
After that final exchange, Zero let the system panels fade to the background.
The numbers, the categories, the blinking tabs—he'd seen enough for now.
He stood up with a quiet stretch, the creak of the old mattress groaning behind him as he stepped toward the crooked desk in the corner of the room.
Its surface was scratched, uneven, and covered in dust... but cleared just enough for what he had in mind.
He pulled out a small plastic bag from under a stack of books.
Inside was a brand new notebook.
Plain black cover. No title. No logo. Clean and unopened.
He had bought it weeks ago—on a random walk, telling himself it would be a "trade journal".
Some logical, important-sounding thing he thought he should probably start.
"Track your money flow."
"Monitor value fluctuations."
"Organize your account."
He didn't understand a single part of it.
Still didn't.
Finance terms felt like static in his brain.
Debits, credits, assets, ledgers—he'd tried.
But none of that was what he wrote.
He sat down, opened the notebook to the first crisp white page… and started.
Zero sat at the crooked desk, the dim light flickering above him as he scribbled furiously in the notebook.
The pages filled with his thoughts, plans, and strategies, each stroke of the pen a step toward reclaiming his life.
The night wore on, the world outside fading into a distant hum.
But inside his small room, time felt suspended. Ideas flowed like a river, unrestrained and wild.
He wrote until his hand ached, until the ink ran dry, until the first light of dawn crept through the cracked window.
Finally, as the sun began to rise, he leaned back, exhausted but satisfied. The notebook lay open before him, filled with his ambitions and desires.
He glanced at the first few lines, the most pressing matters staring back at him:
1- Pay bills.
2- Get financially stable.
3- Get trusted subordinates or agents.
But there was more—much more—hidden beneath the surface, plans that would shape his future.
With a quiet resolve, he closed the notebook, the sound echoing softly in the stillness of the room.
Zero took a deep breath, feeling the weight of his decisions settle around him. The world outside was waking up, and so was he.
He was ready to take the first steps toward his new life.