The mountain winds howled across a vast forest-cloaked plain, screaming through jagged peaks like ancient ghosts. Towering cliffs loomed like forgotten titans, and amid tall grass soaked in alien blood, a lone young man stood—his dagger still dripping with crimson ichor.
With a swift, ruthless motion, he severed the head of the black-furred alien beast at his feet. Its body twitched once, then lay still.
The watch on his wrist flickered.
You have killed an Ordinary-Class Demon Wolf Alien!
No drop items obtained!
Consume its flesh to gain EvoCells!
Name: Austin Veyne
Class: Low-Level Superhuman
Status: None
Element: None
Lifespan: 100 Years
EvoCells Required for Evolution: 200
Current EvoCells: 04
Austin crouched beside the corpse, slicing open its gut. The stench hit him like a punch, but he didn't flinch. He tore a chunk of meat from the beast's flank and bit into it, chewing cold rubbery flesh without hesitation.
The screen blinked again.
+1 EvoCell (Ordinary-Class Demon Wolf Alien)
+1 EvoCell (Ordinary-Class Demon Wolf Alien)
Then nothing.
He stopped chewing, tilted his head. "Only two? Hm. Not bad."
His tone was casual, maybe even bored. But under that calm, there was something else. Hunger—not the kind food could fix.
This wasn't Earth. This world was crawling with creatures called Origin Aliens, and their flesh carried genetic power. Some of them were edible raw. Some weren't. Some could make you evolve.
He'd clawed his way into this world. But it hadn't started here.
No, his story began in the filth..
—
Two months ago, In the slums were a graveyard of forgotten lives. Tin-roof homes leaned into each other like dying men. Tarps fluttered half-torn. The air reeked of burning plastic, sewage, and quiet decay. Sunlight rarely reached this place.
Inside one collapsing tent, a boy lay motionless. His body was a mess of bruises and dried blood. His face, swollen beyond recognition, looked more corpse than human.
Until his fingers twitched.
A gasp cut through the silence, sudden and sharp. His eyes flew open—wild, confused, breathing fast. Pain tore through him like fire. But deeper than the pain was disbelief.
"Wasn't I… dead? In a car accident?"
His chest rose and fell rapidly. His heart pounded like a war drum inside his ribs. He blinked, trying to adjust to the dim surroundings—the frayed tent walls, the rusted metal rods, the mold-stained floor.
"This... isn't a hospital. Or the afterlife. Then what the hell is this place?"
He lifted his bruised, trembling hand and stared at it.
"These fingers… they're not mine. It is thinner, smaller and different.
"Don't tell me... Did I transmigrate?"
A spark of anticipation flared in his chest. It was crazy but he'd read this scenario a thousand times in webnovels. If this really was transmigration… then surely.
"System!" he called out, both aloud and in his mind.
Silence. No prompt. No interface. Not even mechanical voice.
He frowned.
"System!?" he tried again, louder this time, more desperate.
Still nothing. Not even a fluctuation in his mind.
His lips twisted in frustration. "…Damn it. I was tricked. Those novels were fake after all!"
A sharp pain tore through his ribs as he tried to sit up. He groaned, clutching his side, his face contorting.
"What the hell… Who beat me up this badly?"
Then he froze.
"Wait. Not me. The one before me."
Suddenly, memories surged into his mind like glass shards piercing his consciousness. Fractured, bloody memories not his own. A boy's life. His suffering. His end.
The previous owner of this body... was also named Austin.
He had no family, no past just a name. An eighteen-year-old boy, born in the shadows of poverty. He had spent his entire life toiling in a coal mine, working sixteen hours a day for scraps barely enough to survive. That was all he'd ever known.
Yesterday, after another grueling shift, he had returned to his broken tent, exhausted and covered in soot, clutching a dry bun and a bottle of diluted milk—his only meal of the day.
He'd argued with the shopkeeper about the price.
That night, as he lay down to sleep but they came.
Several men stormed into his tent. Before he could speak, they rained down blows—fists, boots, an iron rod. No mercy. No warning. Only violence.
Eventually, his body gave out. His heart stopped. His breath ceased.
He died… without even understanding why.
Austin's new eyes narrowed, a storm brewing in their depths.
"So that's the tragic end of your story," he whispered coldly. "Don't worry. Now that I've taken your body... I'll give you the justice you never had."
His lips curled into a faint smirk—not one of sympathy, but of promise. A dark one.
"The previous Austin was weak. Powerless. But not me..."
His gaze hardened as another memory flickered in the back of his mind. His past life. He wasn't some loser. He had trained. He had fought.
"I once beat down eight thugs alone in an alley. They looked like monsters... but by the end, I was the only one standing."
"Back then... they called me a demon. Let's see what they'll call me now."
He smiled to himself, cruel and determined.
"Those bastards who beat this body to death? I'll find them. One by one. And when I'm done, they'll wish they'd finished the job properly."
He tried to rise but winced as pain shot through his shoulder and ribs. His body was still too broken.
"…Tch. First thing's first. I need to recover."
His expression turned serious. No more pointless thoughts. He needed strength. A plan. Information. This wasn't just a second chance.
It was a rebirth. And he wouldn't waste it.
Suddenly, Austin's body trembled. Not from pain, not from exhaustion but from something stirring deep inside him.
A dull hum echoed from his chest.
Thump… thump… thump…
His heart began to beat faster. Louder. Like the drums of war pounding through his ribcage. His breath hitched as he clutched his chest, a burning pain spreading like wildfire through his veins.
It wasn't physical. It was something else—something foreign. Something… ancient.
"What the hell is happening to me…?"
His vision blurred, swallowed by waves of dizziness. But strangely, there was no panic. No struggle. Only a weightless sensation, like he was floating in midair.
A cold wind swept through the tent.
Yet not a single flap moved.
His body froze, rigid like a statue. And then—everything went black.
Pitch-black.
A space so dark that even light seemed afraid to enter.
Austin's eyes darted around in the void. There was nothing. No stars. No sound. No ground beneath his feet. Only endless, oppressive silence.
"Where… am I?"
He wasn't afraid yet. But confusion pulsed in his mind. As he tried to comprehend the emptiness, a strange warmth bloomed in his chest. It wasn't real heat—it was… awareness. Like his mind was being pulled inward.
Then it began.
The space in front of him trembled.
A crack appeared in the darkness—splitting open like the sky itself. From within, a blinding light surged forth, a radiant beam that forced Austin to shield his eyes.
"What now…?" he muttered under his breath, heartbeat rising—not in fear, but in anticipation.
And then someone appeared.
From that divine light stepped a figure unlike anything he'd ever seen.
A girl stepped forward. Or maybe a woman. Hard to say. Her silver hair flowed like moonlight through water. Her ice-blue eyes gleamed with the weight of forgotten centuries. She wore a dress as black as the void around them, decorated with shimmering, cryptic runes.
She looked like royalty carved from myth. Like a deity born from silence.
Austin blinked slowly and raised a brow. "Well, that's one hell of a dramatic entrance," he said dryly. "Did a queen just descend into my mental breakdown?"
The girl's lips curved slightly, but she didn't seem offended. With a hint of hesitation in her soft voice, she finally spoke.
"I… I was born from your Genesis Core."
Austin's expression froze. For a moment, he thought she was joking.
"Genesis Core?"
He scoffed, folding his arms. "You've got the wrong guy. I'm just a poor bastard from the slums who's never even seen a Genesis Crystal. How could I have a Genesis Core?"
The girl stepped closer, her gaze sharp yet calm. "You're right. The boy who once lived in this body never had one. But he's gone now. You… are someone else entirely."
His eyes narrowed. Internally, he was unsettled.
"She knows I'm not the original soul? Impossible... Even I'm still wrapping my head around it."
But he didn't speak. He simply stared at her, allowing her to continue.
"There's no known case in human history of someone awakening a Genesis Core without absorbing a Genesis Crystal," she said. "And yet, you… you awakened it naturally."
She paused, then whispered, "Because you're not like them. You're… not human."
Those words struck like thunder. Austin's mind went blank.
"Not human? What kind of nonsense is that?"
Before he could question her, she smoothly shifted the subject, but he didn't miss the unease in her tone.
The girl stepped even closer, her expression serious now. "You're not just an awakened… your Genesis Core is unique. It's a Void Genesis Core. Elementless. Empty. But that's what makes it powerful."
"Void…" Austin echoed. "So, it's a defective one?"
She shook her head. "No. It's the rarest. Because it can adapt. Combine. Evolve. Unlike any elemental core humanity has ever created."
Austin's mind raced. "A core that isn't bound by the laws of nature? Doesn't that mean... limitless potential?"
The girl's gaze softened. "And I… I am the consciousness born from it. You can say I am the spirit of your Void Genesis Core."
But Austin's eyes darkened.
He took a step forward, his voice cold and sharp. "If you had a consciousness… why didn't you appear before? Why did the boy who owned this body have to die alone in misery?"
For a brief second, something flickered across her face—was it regret? Fear?
But it vanished just as quickly, buried beneath a veil of calm detachment.
"He… wasn't strong enough. His soul was too fragile. Even if I had appeared, he wouldn't have accepted me. He would've shattered."
She paused, then looked directly into Austin's eyes. "But just when his soul was about to fade completely… I felt it. A new presence. A soul with a fire unlike anything I've ever encountered."
Austin stared back at her, his tone flat but piercing. "So that was me?"
She smiled faintly. "Exactly. Your aura was… different. Powerful and dangerous. I couldn't resist the pull."
Austin clenched his fist, a smirk tugging at his lips. "So that's how it is…"
"I'm not just some lucky transmigrator dropped into a trash body. I'm something else entirely."
He stepped closer, his feet silent against the void.
The girl didn't flinch, but her breath caught ever so slightly.
Now just inches apart, their eyes locked, his dark and probing eyes, hers cold but wavering.
Austin leaned in, the heat of his breath brushing against her face as he whispered, voice low and edged with curiosity.
"So… you were born from my Void Genesis Core," he said slowly, voice laced with intrigue. "What's your name?"
The girl didn't blink.
Her expression remained calm, serene, almost unnatural like a reflection on still water. But something flickered in her eyes.
After a pause, then in a voice soft yet clear, she answered. "Olivia."
The name hung in the air like a secret finally spoken. Simple. Elegant. But somehow… ancient.
Austin repeated it in his mind. "Olivia. Fitting for something that looked like a goddess but smelled like danger."
He smiled, lips curling with amusement. "Olivia… huh. Beautiful name for something born out of the void."
She didn't respond. But the faintest twitch of her lips betrayed the ghost of a smile.
His smile still tugged at the corner of his lips, sharp and dangerous. "But somehow… I don't think you're that simple."
She tensed up after hearing.
Without waiting for a response, he moved closer, he nipped at her ear—not in desire, but to see if she'd flinch.
Her body froze as a shiver not out of fear, but something else ran down her spine.
"That means…" he murmured, voice dipping into something primal, "you belong to me, don't you?"
The silence between them thickened. Her cheeks flushed with the faintest shade of color, barely noticeable, but Austin caught it.
Her gaze dropped, avoiding his.
"Y-You're a beast…" she muttered.
But she didn't push him away. And that said more than words ever could.
Austin pulled back slightly, a devilish smirk dancing on his face. "Maybe. But you didn't deny it."
But his eyes soon lost their warmth. Like the flick of a switch, his smile vanished, replaced by cold steel.
"I don't want to rot in this slum forever," he said coldly, his voice now devoid of warmth. "If I remember correctly, the government will announce the Lower Class Tournament soon."
His eyes narrowed, burning with purpose.
"I need to survive it… and win. That's my ticket out. Once I get that Genesis Crystal, I'll evolve… and when I do, I'll enter the alien worlds and kill Origin Aliens. That's where I'll grow. That's where I'll rise."
The shift in his demeanor was so sudden that it made Olivia pause.
She watched him carefully, a subtle smile tugging at the corner of her lips as a thought flickered in her mind. "He's dangerous…"
"The kind of person who can flip emotions like a switch… is far more terrifying than any Origin Alien."
She floated a little closer, her voice calm but laced with caution.
"You should know… there are no Origin Aliens on Earth. You can't absorb alien genes here. Your Void Genesis Core no matter how special, won't activate without an alien gene trigger."
Austin didn't flinch. His eyes locked on her, sharp and unblinking.
"Then I'll train," he said. "If I can't awaken yet, I'll forge my body until I can."
Olivia nodded, impressed by his resolve.
"Good. Push your physical limits. That might just give you an edge in the tournament. But one more thing…"
She tilted her head, her silver hair catching the faint shimmer of void light.
"But when the time comes when you get that crystal, use it immediately. Your awakening won't be normal."
He raised a brow. "That so?"
"The moment you awaken," she warned, "they'll sense it."
Austin's eyes darkened. He looked around. "By the way… what is this place?"
She smiled. "Your consciousness. I pulled your mind in."
Then a silence followed. Heavy with ambition and secrets.
—
Austin trained with relentless fury, transforming his broken frame into steel.
When the long-awaited Lower Class Tournament arrived, he didn't just survive he dominated. Placing within the top hundred, he earned not only a Genesis Crystal but also a coveted spot within an organization.
With a verified identity granted at last, he was teleported to the Planet Nexus Prime—a massive convergence point where all evolution journeys begin. Every aspiring superhuman, regardless of origin, is sent here when they officially awaken their path.
Before departing, he tied up unfinished business. The men who killed the previous Austin?
He found them.
And he erased them.
One by one.
No mercy. No witnesses.
—
Now, standing once more under the alien sky, Austin gazed down at the fresh corpse of the Demon Wolf Alien.
He packed some meat into his bag, lips curling into a cold smirk.
"Two months ago, I was nothing. Now? he murmured. I hunt monsters."
He looked up. "And soon… gods."