Chapter 1

Rust roared in my bronchial tubes.

The stench—a mixture of oxidized metal, coolant, and the rot of decaying flesh—saturated every inch of the air. A snapped hydraulic strut had pierced my left shoulder, pinning me to the wall at the lowest level of the "Sinking Abyss" sector like a discarded component tossed into a trash heap.

Gravity here felt heavier than usual; every one of my cells was wailing in agony. Radiation alarms shrieked incessantly in the shadows above, like a swarm of restless flies.

My name is Alex Wynn. An hour ago, I was the Chief Engineer for the Aether-Core Syndicate, ready to deliver the "Zero Engine"—the energy source that would reshape the world—to the Board. Now, I was mere fertilizer for this godforsaken scrapyard.

No, I wasn't even fertilizer. I was less than that.

"Look at this masterpiece. How poetic."

High above, a massive holographic screen shimmered with a ghostly blue light. It was the face of Marcus Van der Wien. He stood on the transparent observation deck of the Cloud Layer, his slender fingertips elegantly swirling a glass of deep-red wine. Through the high-definition lens, he was overlooking my agony.

"Alex, you truly are a genius. The structural models you designed—even the discarded parts are brimming with the beauty of mathematical logic." Marcus took a sip of his wine, that signature, detestable curve of arrogance hanging on his lips. "It's a pity you could never grasp a simple truth: you are just a cheap, replaceable cog in this vast machine. When the title of Chief Engineer was stripped away, and the 'Zero Engine' was claimed under my name, the significance of your existence was wiped clean."

I tried to speak, but only thick, rust-tasting blood bubbled up in my throat.

"Don't struggle." Marcus chuckled, his fingers tapping gently on the console. "To commemorate this historic moment, I have reserved a special 'curtain call' just for you. The radiation valves of the Abyss sector have been opened. We shall record this final workflow in its entirety."

Click.

The sound of death’s door unlocking.

The sealed chamber around me began to tremble, and a powerful radiation storm, laced with blinding blue light, poured in through the cracks in the walls without reservation. This wasn't ordinary air; it was a high-energy particle stream, concentrated and highly ionized.

My skin began to discolor rapidly, and my muscle fibers emitted a faint, burning crackle under the impact of the radiation. The pain felt as if countless microscopic needles were forcibly piercing my pores, injecting molten lava directly into my nerve endings.

I could feel that I had lost sensation in my left foot, followed by my right leg, and then an numbness spreading steadily toward my heart. It was the terrifying experience of cells disintegrating en masse, of the very essence of life being forcibly stripped away.

"Your anger, your defiance—they seem so futile in the face of this absolute destruction." Marcus’s voice through the speaker felt hollow and distant. "In the lab, you once said that humanity always longed for miracles that could reshape the world. Look, the miracle is happening now—you are vanishing, and my empire will become eternal, built upon this very foundation."

My consciousness began to scatter.

In my field of vision, red and blue lines flickered at high frequency—a precursor to retinal damage. I saw Marcus vaguely on the screen, turning to leave. He stopped paying attention to me, because in his eyes, I was already a tiny fraction of this heap of tailings.

I don't want to die.

Not for dignity, not for that damned patent—but because of this lingering, unresigned bitterness of being desecrated. I injected my life's wisdom into the "Zero Engine," yet this beast... this absolute beast talks about an empire.

The frequency of the life-sign monitor slowed, the low hums merging into a single straight line.

3%.

2%.

At this moment, cold logic replaced the excruciating physical pain. A nameless chill, akin to a "dimensional collapse," injected itself directly into the core of my consciousness.

【High-throughput energy redundancy detected...】

It was a voice—not heard through the ears, but booming directly within the ashes of my soul.

【'Ark: Zero' system capture successful.】

【Logical carrier ready. Neural pulse forced-closed.】

The agony vanished instantly, replaced by an ice-cold processing power that felt like it would shatter my brain—countless complex geometric shapes and material models were being constructed frantically in the sea of my consciousness. I could clearly "see" through the molecular structure of the surrounding walls. That rotten metal, those deactivated electronic components, under my will, became like rubbery clay I could manipulate at will.

It was an authorization surpassing human cognition.

【Warning: Life signs at baseline. Biomimetic nano-fusion in progress... Warning: this process violates physiological limits. Pain overflow coefficient is 500 times that of regular surgery.】

500 times?

At that moment, I couldn't help but want to sneer.

If that is the price, then, Marcus... get ready to embrace your destruction.

【Ark System loading successful. Phase One: Dead-Ground Reboot, officially initiated.】