001 stalked through the trees, his new senses sharpening with every step. The Feral Instinct trait was already paying off. His hearing now caught even the subtlest rustle, and his eyes adjusted seamlessly to the low, lavender haze filtering through the trees.
The forest was alive—and dying.
Everywhere he looked, he saw signs of decay. Trees with pulsing veins. Insects that twitched unnaturally. The air itself seemed heavier, like it carried something wrong in its molecules.
He wasn't scared. He was studying.
001 crouched low when he heard sloshing nearby. A hulking quadruped—its body bloated and skin peeling—was drinking from a shallow pool. Another corrupted beast. This one looked like a fusion of boar and crocodile, with tusks jutting from the wrong places and translucent tumors pulsing across its back.
001 crept forward, barefoot but silent. He stepped on a jagged root, felt the stab of pain—then smiled. Pain meant control.
He waited.
The creature turned.
001 sprang.
The fight was short, brutal. He used momentum and leverage more than brute force, snapping a tusk and driving it into the monster's throat. It convulsed and collapsed. Its black core throbbed.
> [Core Absorbed: Toxic Flow Tree Unlocked] [Trait Gained: Neurotoxic Blood] [Trait Gained: Elastic Spine]
001 gasped. His spine shifted, crackling. His veins ran hotter. There was no agony—only change.
Then the whispers started.
Faint. Disconnected.
Like a dead radio signal.
"Consume... adapt... ascend..."
He clenched his fists. "I don't take orders."
The whispers faded.
Later, while scouting, he encountered another human.
A skinny teen in ragged robes with knives strapped to his thighs.
They locked eyes. The boy shouted, "Stay back! I'll kill you, beast!"
001 said nothing.
The teen threw a knife. 001 caught it mid-air, then vanished into the trees. Moments later, he was behind the boy, pressing the blade to his throat.
"You thought I was a beast," 001 said. "You were half right."
The teen trembled. "Wh-what are you?"
"Alive."
He knocked the boy out and vanished.
Word would spread.
---
Chapter 3: The Rule of the Jungle
The outpost was little more than wooden walls and mud huts. Smoke drifted from fires, and the scent of blood lingered in the air. Bodies hung from poles at the entrance—warnings, or trophies.
001 walked in barefoot, shirtless, eyes glowing faintly with corruption. He didn't care who saw him.
Everyone stared.
Two brutes stepped forward, both wearing rusted armor and carrying clubs the size of tree branches.
"New meat," one growled.
001 didn't stop walking. "I'm not meat."
They moved to block him.
He drove his elbow into one's ribs, snapping bone, then flipped the other and shattered his jaw with a heel drop. The silence that followed was thick.
"Where's your leader?" he asked.
A woman stepped from the largest hut—tall, muscular, and draped in scavenged armor.
"I'm Warlord Grentha. You kill my dogs, you fight me."
"Then fight."
The duel was savage. Grentha was strong, fast, and brutal.
001 was better.
He used her momentum against her, redirecting her strikes, exploiting openings. At the end, he slammed her into the dirt and dislocated her shoulder.
"You lead because you're strong," he said. "But strength evolves. I'm the next step."
Grentha laughed and offered him her good hand. "Then lead with me."
001 declined. He wanted resources, not politics.
The jungle had rules.
He didn't follow them.
He rewrote them.
---
Chapter 4: Meat, Mana, and Mutation
001 learned quickly.
Magic was currency here. Measured in cores, bloodlines, and rituals. The villagers feared mages and worshipped strength.
He asked about mana cores.
"Yours is strange," an old herbalist muttered, scanning him with glowing eyes. "Not... natural. Not born. Grown."
She recoiled from him.
He absorbed another corrupted core that night. A winged lizard that bled purple mist.
> [Mutation: Winged Sinew - Locked] [Corruption Core Expanded - Evolution Node Added]
He saw the interface in his mind. A branching tree of traits, some glowing, some darkened. He chose one:
> [Upgrade: Forked Sense - Enhanced smell and mana detection]
His nose burned. The world opened further.
Then he saw it: a massive corpse-tree in the distance, surrounded by mist. Black roots pulsed through the forest, feeding off dead animals.
He approached.
And the corrupted bear emerged.
---
Chapter 5: The Beast in the Black
Ten feet tall. Covered in obsidian armor-like skin. Eyes burning with magenta hatred.
001 faced it alone.
He dodged its charge, rolled, struck its side. It barely flinched. His bones cracked. His vision blurred.
> [Instinctive Trait Activated: Combat Reflex Layering]
The system helped him predict movement.
He set traps using fallen logs, baited the bear into a narrow ravine, and fought with patience.
Each time it struck him, he adapted.
And when it roared, he used its own momentum to snap its neck with a makeshift lever trap.
It died shrieking.
> [Core Acquired: Primal Beast - Alpha Branch Tree Unlocked] [Trait: Howl of Disruption - Unlocked] [Sync Ratio: 12%]
He stood atop the beast's corpse.
And a figure in robes, watching from the shadows, whispered: "He's not of this world..."
---
Chapter 6: Bloodlines and Blasphemy
A caravan arrived. Gold-trimmed wagons. Soldiers in clean armor. And a mage with silver eyes: Lord Pellin, blood heir of House Caelin.
They came to study the corruption.
001 approached.
"You stink of beasts," Pellin sneered.
"And you stink of perfume."
The duel was demanded.
001 accepted.
He dodged Pellin's fire spells, closed the gap, and used a single carved rune—a corrupted sigil embedded in his forearm—to disrupt Pellin's casting.
Then he slammed him into the dirt.
"This world favors power," he said. "I favor results."
Pellin crawled away, humiliated.
His men spread rumors: "The corrupted man beat a noble heir."
001 walked into the woods.
A bounty was placed before sunset.
---
Chapter 7: Hunted
The first assassin came at dawn.
Quick. Poisoned blades. Silent steps.
She died with a snapped neck.
More followed. A pair. Then five. Then a squad.
001 adapted.
He used his Forked Sense to track them. Elastic Spine to dodge ambushes. Neurotoxic Blood to coat traps.
Each death fed his Core.
> [Trait: Adaptive Counterinstinct Unlocked]
He caught one alive. Tortured just enough to talk.
"A cult... wants you alive. The nobles want you dead. The hunters... want your power."
"Let them come," 001 replied.
His eyes glowed black for a moment.
The forest trembled.
---
Chapter 8: The Forgotten Temple
The whispers returned.
They guided him to a buried ruin. Stone covered in vines and rot. Symbols pulsed faintly with magic.
He entered.
Inside: a black relic. Beating faintly. Shaped like an eye.
When he touched it:
> [ACCESSING PRIMAL ROOT ARCHIVE...] [UNLOCKING VOID-ORIGIN TREE] [WARNING: FLESHSCRIPT INTEGRATION AVAILABLE]
Visions.
Wars between sorcerers and corrupted titans. A being with a voice like screaming stars.
001 woke bleeding.
> [Trait Gained: Fleshscript Integration - Runes can be carved into living tissue]
He carved the first into his palm.
It hurt.
It was worth it.
---
Chapter 9: Fleshscript
001's skin bore runes now. They pulsed when he fought.
His mind split during combat, reacting faster, seeing patterns. The instincts weren't his anymore—they were better.
He faced a corrupted boarpack attacking the village.
He didn't protect them for morality.
He wanted to test a new rune.
> [Spell: Veil Pulse - Mana disruption field - Cast]
Their cores exploded in their chests.
Villagers stared in horror.
He didn't care.
He sat beneath a tree afterward, carving a new rune into his shoulder.
"If fear brings order," he murmured, "then let them fear me."
---
Chapter 10: Designated Threat
Noble emissaries declared him a walking blasphemy.
A magical decree named him: Warbreed Abomination.
The jungle stirred.
A beast tide—thousands of corrupted creatures—marched toward the outpost.
Grentha begged for help.
"You want me to save you? You hunted me."
"Please."
001 stood atop the wall. His veins pulsed black. His eyes glowed.
He opened his arms as the beasts neared.
> [Trait Activated: Howl of Disruption]
Hundreds fell.
But thousands kept coming.
He grinned.
"If this world wants a monster..."
His voice dropped, guttural.
"I'll show it one."
---
End of Chapter 10.