The fractured horizon of his Divine Core World pulsed once more. Then, as if answering some hidden signal, the golden voice returned, resonating with divine finality.
"Congratulations, Candidates. You have taken your first step upon the Path of Ascension.
As decreed by the Origin Continent, each of you shall receive a Starter Chest to aid your awakening. Use it wisely, for the trials to come will test the worth of gods and mortals alike."
A ripple of light descended. Before Ravens, a golden coffer materialized, intricate runes etched across its surface, its glow steady and calm.
The System spoke again, its words carved into every soul:
[Starter Chest Contents]
– 100 Low-Grade Divine Crystals(pure condensed energy, the lifeblood of cultivation.)
– 1 Random Administrator Summon Card (1–7 stars, aligned to awakened talent)
– 1 Resurrection Coin (Has the ability to cheat death once)
– 50 Core Fragments(shards of creation used to mend and expand one's newborn Divine Core World.)
The same announcement echoed across the Regional Chat instantly.
— "A chest? Hahaha, now we're talking!"
— "Low-grade crystals? Finally, some cultivation fuel!"
— "Administrator card… wait, does that mean I can summon a servant god?!"
— "Fifty core fragments ? That's enough to start stabilizing the Divine Core World!"
Excitement surged through the channel. Some prayed, others boasted, some even wept with relief. The chest was a lifeline, a promise that the System had not abandoned them to chaos.
Ravens' eyes lingered on his coffer. The runes pulsed faintly, awaiting his touch.
Slowly, he reached forward.
The moment his fingers brushed the chest, his fractured Divine Core reacted. The static of his world surged, distorting the very fabric of the coffer's light. His vision cracked with flickers of error messages.
[Error: Talent Undefined.]
[Attempting Synchronization.]
[Random Chance Triggered.]
Then, the impossible.
[Critical Blessing Activated.]
Your Starter Chest has been blessed by anomaly.
Critical Rate x1000 applied to all opened resources.
The chest detonated in brilliance.
Where there should have been 100 crystals, mountains of radiant gems poured forth like waterfalls, piling endlessly at his feet. The Resurrection Coin burned brighter, splitting into a thousand shimmering tokens before reforming in stacks. Core fragments swirled like a storm, multiplying until the very sky of his broken world sagged under their weight.
Ravens' mouth went dry. His broken world was drowning in treasure.
The Regional Chat erupted with noise as other candidates flaunted their modest gains.
— "A hundred crystals! I'm rich!"
— "My summon card is a four-star administrator! Bow before me!"
— "Haha! I pulled a five-star!"
Ravens stared at the ocean of light swallowing his fractured Divine Core World.
His Bugged classification wasn't a curse. It was a distortion. A crack in the System itself.
The chest cracked apart, scattering radiant shards that reformed as glowing lines of text across his panel. The numbers stacked up—and up—until Ravens' breath caught in his throat.
[Bugged Starter Chest Rewards Acquired]
100,000 Low-Grade Divine Crystals (base: 100 × 1000)
1 Resurrection Coin × 1000 (base: 1 × 1000)
50,000 Core Fragments (base: 50 × 1000)
1 Administrator Summon Card [7★ Guaranteed]
{System Alert: Due to Bugged Core interference, probability collapsed. Result: A guaranteed Seven-Star Administrator—the rarest authority any new godling could dream of.}
The System faltered, glyphs flashing red.
[Warning: Reward distribution exceeds candidate limits.]
[Correction Failed.]
[Authority Error Detected… Bugged Core Override.]
[Status: Rewards Locked.]
The text froze. The numbers didn't shrink or vanish—they were his.
Ravens stared blankly at the panel. "This… this is insane."
All around, the Regional Chat still roared with excitement and envy:
— "Damn, my summon card only gave me a 2-star Battle Servant…"
— "Haha! 3-star Flame Soldier here! I'm unstoppable now!"
— "A hundred crystals… gone already. How are we supposed to grow with so little?"
— "Wait—someone just pulled a 5-star?! What the hell?!"
They were clawing at scraps, fighting over crumbs. Meanwhile, Ravens' chest contained enough to build an empire.
And the 7★ Administrator card in his hand pulsed with a golden light, its very presence enough to warp the air.
He swallowed hard. What… what kind of being will answer this call?
Ravens stared at the shimmering Summon Card lying in his palm. Runes crawled across its surface, glowing faintly with gold and black light. This was it—the rarest prize of his starter chest, something most in the plaza would never even glimpse.
His throat was dry. He swallowed hard, then whispered, "Summon."
The card shattered in a burst of light.
[Administrator Summoning Initiated.]
[Designation: 7★ Entity Detected.]
[Warning: This Summon may destabilize Divine Core World.]
The broken sky above him split open. A storm of silver fire and black chaos poured through, warping his already fractured world. The air itself groaned like a wounded beast.
From the rift, she descended.
Her hair spilled like starlit midnight, eyes burning—one silver, one crimson—each a storm unto itself. Obsidian armor clung to her like living flame, shifting with jagged golden lines. She was flawless, terrifying, beautiful in the way of disasters.
The System's tone rang across the collapsing space:
[Summon Complete.]
[Bound Entity: Luna Nightbane — Queen of Chaos.]
Her gaze fell upon him.
Her lips curved.
"So. You are the one bold—or foolish—enough to call me back into existence."
Ravens took an involuntary step back. Her aura was suffocating, a storm pressing down on his chest.
Luna's smile widened, cruel.
She lifted her hand—and spears of chaos surged from the ground, their tips gleaming with annihilation.
Ravens froze. This was no servant. This was a calamity.
Her aura exploded outward. The floating shards of his Divine Core World shuddered, rivers cracked, and jagged spears of chaos formed around her like a crown of blades.
"And now you think a newborn whelp can bind me with a card?"
She raised her hand. The spears turned toward him.
Ravens' heart stopped. He knew—this was the end.
But as the storm descended, something inside him flared. The world itself buckled. The spears froze in midair, trembling as if gripped by invisible chains.
The System screamed into his soul:
[Talent(??) Triggered.]
[New Divine Ability Awakened.]
[Designation: Absolute Dominion.]
Chains of jagged light erupted from the void, binding the spears mid-strike. They dissolved into dust, leaving only silence. Luna staggered, her mismatched eyes widening before she dropped to one knee, shackled by invisible force.
Ravens gasped, his heart pounding. What… what did I just do?
The System answered calmly:
[Administrator Bound.][Absolute Dominion Effect Applied.][Loyalty set to 100%.]
A translucent panel opened before Ravens.
[Administrator Status – Bound Entity]
Name: Luna Nightbane
Title: The Queen of Chaos
Rank: 7★ Administrator (Unique)
Description: Once hailed as the only god who dared to tread the Chaos Lands, where even Rank Six gods would not go. Betrayed and slain by her sister in a scheme of blood and envy. Though her divinity was shattered, fragments of her authority linger still.
Constitution: 16,500
Combat Power: 5,000 (Locked — Host Rank Insufficient)
Divinity: Locked
Loyalty: 100% (Absolute Dominion)
Functions Unlocked:
Divine Core World stability management.
+300% cultivation efficiency.
Combat simulation enabled.
Ravens' throat went dry. Sixteen thousand… and she's locked down to five thousand?
Even crippled by the System's restraints, her raw presence still eclipsed him a hundred times over. And if those locks were ever lifted…
He looked up at Luna. Her head was bowed now, not in defiance, but in submission so absolute it felt wrong. The chaos queen who once challenged creation itself was kneeling quietly before him.
Absolute Dominion, he thought, shivering. What kind of power have I been given?
He quickly opened his panel to check the talent he had acquired .....
[Divine Ability: Absolute Dominion]
Type: Sovereign Authority (Unique, Bugged)
Description: The bearer of Absolute Dominion holds unchallenged authority over all beings they bind. Resistance is impossible; submission is inevitable. Once bound, loyalty is forcibly set to perfection, their will rewritten to acknowledge the bearer as absolute master.
Effects:
Any summoned or contracted entity cannot defy the host.
Loyalty is permanently fixed at 100%, immune to betrayal, corruption, or external control.
Entities bound under Dominion may have their attributes suppressed or limited in accordance with the host's current rank.
When the host ascends ranks, the restraints lift proportionally, unleashing the true potential of the bound entity.
Note: This ability should not exist. Source unknown. Monitoring… [ERROR]
Luna POV
At first, Luna's body trembled against the invisible chains wrapping her soul. Chaos boiled at her fingertips, the echoes of her once-boundless divinity struggling to answer her call. She tried to summon flame, storm, void—anything.
Nothing came.
Her crimson-silver eyes widened. Then narrowed again, hard as blades.
"How…?" Her lips barely moved, her voice low and ragged, dripping with venom and disbelief. "Even when gods sought to bind me, they failed. Even when Chaos itself roared, I walked unshackled. Yet you…"
Her gaze snapped to Ravens. Not with the disdain of a superior looking at an insect, but the raw, stunned fury of a predator finding its fangs broken.
"I cannot resist you."
The words sounded alien, even to her. She tested them again, as though hoping they were false, her jaw tightening until it creaked. But the truth remained. The System's decree echoed in her chest, unyielding: Loyalty — 100%.
Her knees bent, not by choice, but by inevitability. She sank into a kneel, head bowing as strands of silver hair fell across her face. Her pride screamed, but her body obeyed.
For the first time since the birth of her legend, the Queen of Chaos submitted.
And yet, in the depths of her burning eyes, there was no peace. There was awe, confusion, and a flicker of something far more dangerous—curiosity.
What are you, mortal? her gaze seemed to say, even as her lips whispered in a trembling rasp:
"My master."