Chapter 1: The Underground Inferno

  ‘I guess this is it… huh.’

  A bitter chuckle escaped my cracked lips as I sat, chained in the execution chamber of Sector 7’s underground prison—a place where outcasts, criminals, and disposable scapegoats awaited their turn to die. The air hung thick with the stench of despair and the metallic tang of blood, a grim testament to the fate of those who had come before me.

  But I wasn’t here for some petty crime.

  I was framed.

  The Sector 7 Bus Bombing.

  Thirty-nine dead. Over two hundred injured.

  And guess who they blamed?

  Me.

  Jin Noxus.

  A pathetic D-Rank Awakener.

  The kind of guy whose only skill—Fire Burst—barely lit up a cigarette.

  Lower than trash in a world where power was everything.

  In this rotten world, overrun by dungeons and monsters, there were no fancy systems or god-given powers.

  Only ranks.

  F, E, D, C, B, A, Z.

  Z-Rankers ruled the world.

  People like me cleaned its garbage.

  Literally.

  I was coming back from another worthless shift—picking up dungeon scrap and monster guts for a few measly coins—when it happened.

  Some rich bastard from a noble family was practicing his flame arts nearby. Showboating like they always do.

  He lost control.

  A barrage of fireballs went wild—one of them hit a passing bus.

  The explosion turned the street into a slaughterhouse. A cacophony of screams and the sickening crunch of metal filled the air, followed by an eerie silence.

  And when the smoke cleared, who was standing nearby with a fire-type skill registered to their name?

  Me.

  Tch.

  It was too easy for them.

  The nobles twisted the narrative. Falsified reports.

  Suddenly, I wasn’t just a D-Rank nobody—I was a terrorist.

  They arrested me on the spot.

  No trial. No questions.

  Dragged to this godforsaken hole beneath Sector 7.

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  And now… here I am.

  Chained up like a rabid dog, waiting for my head to roll. My wrists burned from the rough restraints, and a cold dread settled in my stomach.

  That’s when it happened.

  Void.

  An endless expanse of suffocating darkness.

  No up. No down. No light.

  Only a distant, mechanical heartbeat—echoing like a god’s pulse.

  thump... thump... thump...

  I floated weightless, the chains of death cut, my memories half-torn and bleeding. It was like being adrift in a sea of nothingness, the echoes of my past life fading with each pulse.

  And then it spoke.

  A voice neither male nor female. Cold. Ancient. It felt like ice water being poured directly into my brain.

  「Fragment detected. Incomplete vessel. Protocol 9C-Dominion Override: Initiating.」

  A single sphere of blinding crimson light appeared before me, covered in runic circuits. Its presence crushed the air around me. It felt like an immense pressure, a weight that threatened to crush my very being.

  「You have died. The cycle demands regression. Fragment alignment incomplete. Risks… ignored.」

  ‘What… the hell are you?’

  I didn’t need to ask aloud. The thing could hear my thoughts.

  「I am the Dominion Core. Arbiter of Fragments. You were chosen to inherit what remains of a lost throne.」

  I scowled.

  ‘Bullshit. I don’t want your throne, I want my revenge.’

  The core pulsed once, and an unbearable pressure slammed into my mind. It was like being caught in a cosmic storm, my thoughts and memories tossed about like leaves in the wind.

  「Desire irrelevant. Fate predetermined. Regression will commence. You are granted one module to claim your dominion. Seek power. Consume it. Break this cycle or be devoured by it.」

  A thousand streams of data surged around me, forming a translucent wheel filled with incomprehensible symbols. It was a dizzying display of arcane knowledge, a glimpse into the inner workings of the universe.

  「Spin. Fate demands a fragment.」

  I didn’t hesitate. I reached out and spun the wheel. A surge of energy coursed through me as the wheel blurred, the symbols flashing before my eyes.

  The moment it stopped, a single word burned itself into my consciousness.

  「Dominance.」

  A cold sensation snaked through my body, filling the gaps where my soul had cracked. It was an invasive presence, yet it felt… empowering.

  「dominance Module granted. Parameters: Deception. Observation. Assimilation. Seek dominion through cunning and ruin.」

  The core’s light flickered, dimming.

  「This world is not your own, yet it reeks of the same rot. Awaken, forgotten fragment. Survive… if you can.」

  And then—the world collapsed.

  I plummeted, falling endlessly through spirals of broken realities.

  Through the remains of other souls, other failures, other me's. It was a terrifying descent into the abyss, a journey through fractured timelines and shattered possibilities.

  Until darkness consumed me.

  Then suddenly I woke up in The Alley.