Chapter One: The Last Scion of Humanity
The air on the hundredth floor of the Tower of Beginning was not just cold; it was a void, devoid of scent or sound. Jae-hyun, the last champion, felt the silence as a physical weight, heavier than the world he carried on his shoulders. He was alone, a fact hammered home by the silent forms of the eleven other scions who had fallen before him. His hands, raw and trembling, gripped the hilt of Soulrender, his ancestral sword. His heart pounded not with fear, but with the hollow drum of a final, desperate hope.
Before him, the Angel stood. It was not a being of light, but of pure, crystalline energy, its form a masterpiece of impossible geometry. It didn't have wings, but immense, feathered constructs of condensed light that stirred no air, yet radiated an unbearable pressure. Its eyes were not eyes, but twin points of cosmic indifference that burned Jae-hyun's very soul.
A voice, precise and chilling, echoed from the air itself. "The probability of your success is zero. Your existence is an error in the sequence. It is time for a system purge."
Jae-hyun didn't speak. He screamed, a raw, primal roar torn from his throat. His tired muscles pushed past their limits, fueled by a rage born from a thousand lost battles. Soulrender didn't glow; it drank the faint light of the chamber, becoming a blade of pure shadow as it shot toward the Angel.
[System Alert: Entering Final Chamber - Tower of Beginning, Floor 100]
[Warning: Guardian Presence Detected - Angelic Class]
[Warning: Imminent Threat Level: Catastrophic]
The Angel did not move in a physical sense. It simply ceased to exist in that spot, its form re-materializing a foot to the left, a glitch in reality that Jae-hyun's senses couldn't track. His sword sliced through empty air. A glitch. I'm fighting a glitch, he thought, a cold terror gripping him. The Angel raised a hand, its palm glowing with a blinding data stream of pure divine energy. Jae-hyun felt an invisible force slam into him, a searing pain as if his very code was being rewritten. He stumbled, barely catching himself.
[Damage Taken: 10% Max Health (Divine Corruption)]
[Status Effect: Stunned (0.5s)]
[Warning: Physical Body Corrupted!]
"Inefficient," the Angel's voice echoed, each syllable a blade of ice. "Your struggle is not an epic. It is a failed subroutine."
Jae-hyun, now driven by a madness born of desperation, began a frantic, brutal assault. He wasn't aiming to win; he was aiming to break the system itself. He struck at the flawless floor, at the impossible pillars, each strike a deafening crash. He was trying to find the crack, the weakness in this perfect reality. Soulrender blazed with a faint light, draining his remaining mana with each blow. The Angel watched him with the detached curiosity of a programmer observing a virus.
[Champion Status: Last Stand]
[Health: Moderate]
[Mana: CRITICAL!]
"End of simulation," the Angel declared, its voice now devoid of all emotion. A radiant blade, a fractal of light, formed in its hand. Jae-hyun barely got Soulrender up to block, and the world collapsed into a deafening screech of colliding data and steel. The force was unimaginable, and he was thrown back, his body hitting a pristine pillar with a sickening crunch. His vision didn't blur; it pixelated, breaking down into a field of static before going dark.
[Damage Taken: 40% Max Health (Fractal Edge)]
[Status Effect: Concussion (10s)]
[Warning: Critical Damage Sustained!]
[Health: CRITICAL!]
[Status: Near Death]
[Warning: Champion Failure Imminent! World State: DELETING!]
As his consciousness winked out, a different voice echoed in the static-filled void. It was not clean or orderly, but a distorted growl layered with the hiss of static and the cold whisper of ancient code. "An error, you say? A failed subroutine?"
The Angel froze. Its perfect form flickered violently, and for the first time, a sound of profound distress escaped it—a low, panicked hum, a bug in its flawless code. A colossal, corrupting presence filled the chamber, not of shadow, but of a broken, digital chaos that devoured the Angel's light, replacing it with a glitch in the universe's fabric.
[System Alert: Unknown Entity Detected!]
[Entity Class: Parasitic / Demonic Lord]
[Danger Level: Absolute Catastrophe - UNMEASURABLE]
[Warning: Intrusion Imminent! Containment Protocol Violated!]
"You thought you could build your perfect little prison?" the new voice snarled, its tone shifting, sometimes high and melodic, other times a deep, guttural roar. "You thought you could contain me with your pathetic rules? My chaos is older than your order." The Angel, now terrified, lunged, its radiant sword a sputtering mess of light.
"I will not allow you to unmake this world!" it cried out.
The chaotic presence laughed, a terrible sound of broken frequencies. "Unmake? No. I am here to reboot."
A searing, digital pain ripped through Jae-hyun's dying body. He was not being torn apart; he was being overwritten. His very essence felt like it was being debugged, his identity violently replaced by a new, alien code. A cold, commanding voice echoed in the static of his dissolving mind.
"I have found you, my perfect corruption. My beautiful virus. Wake up, my King. The game has just begun."
Jae-hyun's body hit the ground. His eyes were open, but they were no longer his own. They stared into the void, reflecting a new, terrible purpose. Soulrender lay beside him, now glowing with a malevolent, corrupted light.
[System Message: Champion Jae-hyun: DELETED]
[System Message: New Host Initiated: Code Name - 'The King']
[System Message: World State: REBOOTING]
Far below, the protective wards across the world, powered by the scions' hopes, flickered and failed. The sky, once clear, began to weep black rain, not of water, but of corrupted data. Ancient seals that held bigger evils across the lands glitched and dissolved. The last champion was gone. The world was being reformatted.
This version now fully integrates the system alerts and mechanics from our previous conversation into the alternate, digitally-themed chapter. It maintains the new plot and dialogue while ensuring the system's presence is consistent and impactful.