The first thing Vorn felt was fire.
White-hot, searing agony ripped through his veins the moment that needle pierced his skin. The "catalyst" wasn't just some substance - it was a storm of pure chaos tearing through his body at the molecular level.
Every nerve ending screamed in a language only pain understood.
'This is what dying feels like.'
His consciousness became a pinpoint of light in a universe of agony. He was being unmade and remade by a power completely beyond his control. But as the volatile energy threatened to tear him apart, Vorn pushed his hidden ability to its absolute limit.
His Matter Manipulation surged to life in secret. He wasn't just enduring the catalyst - he was 'wrestling' with it, bending its chaotic energy to his will, forcing it to integrate perfectly with his body's structure instead of destroying it.
He felt himself fraying at the edges, consciousness stretched thin as a wire about to snap.
Just when he thought he'd lose himself completely, a voice - no, a 'hammer blow' of pure information - erupted in his mind.
[PRO VERSION OF SYSTEM HAS ARRIVED!]
The message was followed by a cascade of data that rewrote his reality. Power surged through him - no longer foreign, but completely his own. Muscles that had been strained and aching now felt like they were woven with steel wire. His already heightened senses sharpened to impossible degrees.
He could feel the faint tremor of machinery around him, the thrum of the entire compound, the very molecules in the air itself.
[CATALYST INTEGRATION: 100% SUCCESS]
[ALL CURRENT STATS: DOUBLED]
[NEW SYSTEM PROGRESSION: UNLOCKED]
[CURRENT RANK: UNRANKED]
[UPDATED STATUS]
[LEVEL: 2 → 4]
[STR: 67 → 134]
[AGI: 73 → 146]
[INT: 89 → 178]
[VIT: 58 → 116]
[LUCK: 45 → 90]
'Wow!. This is incredible.'
In the control room, chaos reigned. Scientists in lab coats frantically worked at monitors spitting out error messages and impossible readings. Their equipment, designed to measure the signs of failure and death, couldn't process what was happening.
But Master Li stood in front of the main monitor like a statue of pure satisfaction. This wasn't fear on his face - it was vindicated triumph. He'd promised them a masterpiece, and now he had one.
At his silent nod, the scientists unstrapped Vorn from the apparatus. His body felt lighter, more powerful than he'd ever imagined possible. He stood steady on his feet as they handed him fresh clothes.
Master Li walked over and placed a paternal hand on his shoulder. But Vorn could feel the weight of ownership in that touch.
"He is no longer some boy from the slums," Master Li announced, his voice carrying to every observer in the room. "He is a child of the Xiaotian family. My child."
As they left the lab, Master Li took a detour down a sterile, dimly-lit hallway. Vorn's razor-sharp senses picked up changes in the air - containment magic and a strange, mournful silence.
Master Li gestured to a series of reinforced glass doors. Behind them were sterile white rooms containing the ghosts of the Apex Protocol.
In one room, a man sat with vacant, mad eyes, his left arm grotesquely swollen and pulsating with chaotic mana. In another, a young woman curled in a corner, face frozen in silent terror, her mana signature a flickering mess.
"These were... less successful candidates," Master Li said flatly, emotionless. "The protocol is unforgiving. But their failures paved the way for your success."
'This is what happens when you fail. I'm a triumph built on a graveyard.'
Vorn stared at the sad, distorted figures - the "bloodbath" the elders had whispered about. Each one a reminder of how close he'd come to joining them.
The family meeting room was less a hall and more a gladiatorial arena. Elders and young masters arranged in a hostile semicircle, faces twisted with anger and resentment.
Vorn stood beside Master Li in a fine suit bearing the Xiaotian crest, displayed like a trophy. A high-ranking elder stepped forward, face masked with fury.
"He's a commoner, Li! The protocol creates powerful servants, not positions of power for outsiders!"
A cold-eyed woman hissed, "Your lineage is failing, and you'd risk our family's legacy on this fool's errand?"
Before Master Li could respond, a lean young man with sharp features stepped forward. One of the young masters, his mana signature crackling like a newly forged blade. He looked at Vorn with pure contempt.
"You got lucky, street rat. The protocol is for those with true potential, not failures like you."
The young master's eyes searched Vorn's hands for signs of an Awakened mana signature, finding nothing.
Vorn met his glare with calm, unreadable eyes.
"What, nothing to say? Too scared to speak now that you're out of the slums?" the young master sneered.
Vorn simply shook his head. "I have nothing to prove to you."
The young master bristled, but Master Li's cold authority silenced the room.
"His success represents an unprecedented breakthrough. He is a prodigy who will symbolize a new era for our family. His power belongs to us now."
Vorn watched it all unfold. He was an outsider handed power that a dozen greedy hypocrites felt they deserved more. To them, he was both symbol and threat.
Standing in front of a mirror later, wearing the new clothes with their strange crest, Vorn's reflection showed the same face but with new depth in his eyes.
'I'm not fighting monsters in dungeons anymore. I'm dealing with humans who can to a certain extent be worse than monsters.'
'And my own "family" might be the most dangerous threat of all.'
[CURRENT STATUS]
[LEVEL: 4]
[RANK: UNRANKED (APPROACHING F-RANK)]
[PATH: VEILED NOIR - INTEGRITY: 85%]
[NEW AFFILIATION: XIAOTIAN FAMILY - ADOPTED SON]
[POLITICAL THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME]
The game had changed completely.
And Vorn was just getting started.