The transition from victory to nightmare was instantaneous. One moment, the air was cooling from the friction of the singularity that had crushed Naobito Zenin; the next, the sky over Tokyo didn't just turn dark—it turned digital.
A grid of searing blue lines etched itself across the clouds, vibrating with a low-frequency hum that made my teeth ache. Then, the sound began. It wasn't a crack of thunder, but the sound of a billion pages of parchment tearing at once.
[SYSTEM ALERT: THE CULLING GAME HAS COMMENCED]
[COLONY ID: TOKYO NO. 1]
[MANDATORY RULE: ALL REGISTERED USERS MUST ENTER THE BARRIER]
[PENALTY FOR REFUSAL: SOUL FORFEIT]
A massive, shimmering black curtain—the Veil—descended from the heavens. It didn't fall like fabric; it sliced like a guillotine. I watched, paralyzed, as the barrier carved through a fifty-story skyscraper three blocks away. The building didn't collapse; the half outside the barrier simply stayed still, while the half inside was pulled into a new, distorted reality.
Geto Suguru stood at the edge of the crater we had carved into Roppongi. He looked perfectly at home amidst the apocalypse, his hands tucked neatly into the sleeves of his monk's robes. He wasn't looking at the broken, bleeding form of Naobito. He was looking at the black, geometric marks pulsing on my hands like a second heartbeat.
"The Zenin were the old world, Ren-kun," Geto said, his voice smooth and effortless, cutting through the rising wind of the barrier's descent. "They were obsessed with lineage, blood, and the dusty scrolls of ancestors who died before the world learned to think for itself. But the System... the System is the ultimate meritocracy. It doesn't care who your father was or what name you carry. It only cares about how much you are willing to burn to become a God."
"I'm not interested in your games, Geto!" I shouted. My voice was a ragged shadow of itself. I tried to step toward him, but my knees gave out, hitting the charred concrete with a dull thud. The fight with the Patriarch had left me hollow. My cursed energy felt like a shallow pool of stagnant water, and the third eye on my forehead was thumping with a dull, rhythmic agony.
"It's not my game," Geto chuckled, tilting his head with a mocking curiosity. "It's Valthazar's. He's been waiting for a Vessel strong enough to crack the foundation of the jujutsu world. And now, thanks to your little display of power, the board is set. The era of sorcerers is over. The era of Players has begun."
Beside him, the disaster-grade curse, Hanami, rumbled a sound that felt like roots shifting under the earth's crust. With a flick of Geto's wrist, they dissolved into the shadows, leaving behind only the scent of sandalwood and the cold, terrifying weight of the black Veil as it slammed into the ground, sealing Tokyo away from the rest of humanity.
The Law of the Colony
[WELCOME TO THE GAME, REN]
[CURRENT SCORE: 0 POINTS]
[RULE 1: PLAYERS ARE AWARDED POINTS FOR TERMINATING OTHER PLAYERS]
[RULE 2: NON-SHAMANS = 1 POINT | SORCERERS/SYSTEM USERS = 5 POINTS]
[RULE 3: POINTS MUST BE SPENT WITHIN 19 DAYS TO AVOID BRAIN-DEATH]
I looked around, and a cold dread settled in my gut. The Roppongi I knew was flickering out. The neon lights of the clubs were dying, replaced by a strange, sickly green bioluminescence emanating from the barrier walls. The streets were eerily empty, the silence broken only by the distant, haunting screams of thousands of people caught in the Veil's descent.
Nobara stood up, using a piece of rebar to steady herself. Her broken hammer glinted in the dark. I watched as a blue interface suddenly materialized in front of her eyes—a System window she hadn't asked for, reflecting in her widened pupils.
"I have a score counter," she whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of fury and genuine terror. "Ren, it's... it's tracking my heart rate. It says I'm a 'Player.' It says I have to kill to stay alive."
Toge crawled toward us, his throat so raw he was coughing up flecks of gold and crimson. He tapped his own screen with a shaking hand. He was a Player too. The System had conscripted them the moment I broke the Zenin.
"The trap is finally sprung, Ren," Valthazar laughed, his voice sounding so close it felt like he was breathing against my ear. "Geto has turned all of Tokyo into a slaughterhouse, and you're the prize at the center of the maze. You wanted to be a hero? Now you have to choose. Do you protect these two and starve your power until you all die, or do you hunt the strong and feed the Void until you're the only thing left?"
The First Encounter
Before I could reply, the [Demon's Instinct] flared white-hot behind my eyes.
From the wreckage of a nearby department store, three figures emerged. They didn't have the uniforms of sorcerers. They wore civilian clothes—hoodies and jeans—but their auras were jagged and unstable. They were "Awakened" players—ordinary people who had been granted cursed techniques by the System's sudden evolution.
[PLAYER IDENTIFIED: 'CANNIBAL' KAI]
[POINTS: 15]
[TECHNIQUE: FLESH-MOLDING]
"Look at that," Kai grinned, his jaw unhinging in a sickening display of bone-snapping agility to reveal rows of needle-sharp teeth. "The Void-Walker is already half-dead. That's an easy five points, boys. Maybe more if the System gives a bonus for a King's head. Think of the upgrades we could buy with that!"
"Ren, get back," Nobara said, stepping in front of me. She didn't have her hammer, but she held a handful of nails like claws between her fingers. Her stance was wide, protective, even as her legs shook from exhaustion. "You can't fight in this state. You'll collapse."
"I have to," I wheezed, forcing myself to stand, every joint in my body screaming in protest. I looked at the 22,150 OP in my bank. It was a king's ransom, but I didn't need armor or a weapon. I needed a way to win without becoming the monster Geto wanted.
'System! Search the Forbidden Ledger! Buy: [Soul Link - Equilibrium].'
> [ITEM: SOUL LINK - EQUILIBRIUM] - 20,000 OP
> * Description: A forbidden contract that binds the life-force of three individuals.
> * Effect: Distributes the physical and spiritual burden of the [Void] among all linked allies.
> * Condition: All allies must provide verbal and spiritual consent.
> * Warning: The pain of one is the pain of all. If the Vessel falls, the Link consumes the rest.
>
"Nobara, Toge," I called out, my voice steadying as the violet fire began to leak from my eyes. "I can't do this alone. If I use the Void now, I'll lose my mind to Valthazar. But if we share it... if we link our souls... we can survive this game. We can be the ones who break the rules."
Nobara didn't even look back at me. She just reached her hand behind her, palm open, her fingers steady. "I already told you, Alley-Cat. I'm not letting you go where I can't follow. I'm in. Link it."
Toge crawled to his feet, placing a bloody hand on my shoulder, his eyes fixed on the Cannibal. "Bonito flakes," he whispered—a soft, resolute "Yes" that resonated with the weight of a blood-oath.
[LINK ESTABLISHED]
[NEW TECHNIQUE UNLOCKED: THE TRIAD SINGULARITY]
[CURRENT SYNC RATE: 20% - STABILIZED BY ANCHORS]
As the three Awakened players lunged toward us, a massive, violet-blue-red aura erupted from the three of us, merging into a single, terrifying pillar of light that pushed back the black fog of the Veil. The "Cannibal" froze mid-air, his needle-teeth chattering as he realized the "stray dog" he thought he was hunting had just become a three-headed wolf.
"My turn to hunt," I said, and for the first time, the System's voice sounded like it was afraid of me.