The knife wasn't meant for me.
Or at least, that's what I told myself, until I felt it slice through everything I thought was safe—everything I trusted. She did it. My ex-girlfriend. The one I loved, the one I trusted more than anyone. She betrayed me. And I knew, the moment the world went dark beneath me, that nothing would ever be the same.
I died.
Not by accident. Not by the city, not by fate. By her. A trap disguised as a meeting, a betrayal calculated down to the last detail. I fought, I screamed, I failed. My body hit the asphalt. Pain dissolved into nothing.
And then the system found me.
The alien system. Cold. Ruthless. Whispering in my veins, promising survival… promising power. Many had tried it before me. They had failed. Their bodies shattered. Their minds broken. Their souls consumed.
But I didn't.
It tried to control me. Tried to make me its weapon, its soldier, its pawn in a war I didn't yet understand. But I wasn't anyone. I was something else. I learned its rhythm. I found its flaws. Its rules were perfect—but perfection has cracks, and I slipped through.
When my body rebuilt itself in the void, I realized something terrifying. I wasn't just back. I was stronger. Faster. My mind sharpened, my senses amplified, my control over reality itself—fragmented, but undeniable.
My friends? Those I had trained with, fought beside, trusted… still strong, elegant, lethal. Their systems flawless. But they had never faced death and returned. They never had the alien system submit to them. They didn't have this chaos, this spark, this singularity of power.
And her? The one who killed me? I didn't feel hatred. Not yet. I felt purpose. Every betrayal, every pain, every failure burned into me, shaping me. I would never be vulnerable again.
Death itself would hesitate before me.
Everything changed in that instant. My life, my path, my destiny—it wasn't mine to choose. The system had chosen me. And I had turned it into my weapon. I was no longer weak. I was unstoppable.
But one thing was clear: survival wasn't enough. I had to learn control, because one day, even my chaos would have consequences.
And that day… was coming.