The trading floor was silent.
No shouts of brokers, no flashing monitors, no ticking clocks — only the slow hum of servers buried beneath steel and concrete. The world outside was in chaos, yet here, in the core of the Zogo Tower, time itself felt frozen.
Kaiden Voss stood at the window, overlooking the skyline of New Avalon City. Skyscrapers glimmered under the night sky, their neon veins pulsing like a living beast. Every tower, every street, every market movement — it all belonged to him.
Zogo Coin. His creation. His empire. His dream.
What began as a single white paper written in his cramped dorm room had become the foundation of a new economy. Zogo wasn't just another cryptocurrency — it was the currency. Governments hated it, banks feared it, people worshipped it. For the first time in history, money was free from control.
And he, Kaiden Voss, was the man who made it possible.
Billions flowed through his networks daily. Nations bent their knees in negotiations. He had influence over markets, over governments, over the future itself. At thirty-one, he wasn't just a billionaire. He was a legend.
Yet as he raised his glass of vintage wine in quiet triumph, a sharp thought cut through him.
This is too perfect.
Behind power came enemies. Envy. Shadows in the boardroom, daggers behind smiles. Kaiden wasn't naïve; he knew betrayal was only a matter of time. But even his genius mind hadn't predicted that it would come from the people closest to him.
The door to the penthouse slid open.
He didn't need to turn to know who it was. Adrian Veyne walked in, tailored suit flawless, steps calm, eyes shining with that same unsettling brilliance Kaiden had come to loathe.
"Quite the view, isn't it?" Adrian's voice was smooth, magnetic. The kind of voice that could sway crowds, topple governments, and turn truth into lies.
Kaiden's jaw tightened. "You shouldn't be here."
Adrian smiled faintly, as though he owned the air around him. "I'm always where I need to be."
Before Kaiden could reply, two more figures entered — Evelyn, his lover, and Marcus, his childhood friend and co-founder. Their faces were unreadable, but the silence between them told him everything.
The wine in his glass suddenly tasted bitter.
"So this is it," Kaiden whispered, more to himself than to them. "The betrayal I always expected."
Evelyn lowered her eyes. Marcus shifted uncomfortably. Only Adrian met his gaze, unflinching.
"You've done remarkable things, Kaiden," Adrian said softly. "But you've gone too far. Zogo isn't just money anymore. It's control. And control… should never rest in one man's hands."
Kaiden laughed bitterly. "So your answer is to kill me? Replace me with your ideology? You talk about freeing people from greed, but all I see is another tyrant in the making."
Adrian's eyes gleamed, a predator's calm behind them. "I don't need to kill you, Kaiden. The world already chose me. I am not taking your empire — I'm dismantling the chains you built."
Chains? The irony burned. Zogo was freedom, and yet here stood Adrian, twisting the truth like a serpent.
Kaiden turned to Evelyn, searching her face, desperate for some sign of hesitation. "You? After everything?"
Her lips trembled, but she didn't speak.
And Marcus… Marcus couldn't even meet his eyes.
A sudden weight filled Kaiden's chest — not from fear, but from a suffocating emptiness. These were the people he trusted most, the ones he'd bled beside, sacrificed for, built a future with.
And they had already chosen.
The sound of footsteps echoed behind him. Armed men stepped into the room, guns raised, their black visors reflecting the city lights.
Kaiden set the wine glass down slowly. For a moment, the city lights blurred into crimson streaks in his vision. His heartbeat pounded, but his mind was strangely calm.
So this was how it ended. Not with a rival's clever scheme, not with a market crash, but with betrayal.
He straightened his coat, refusing to give them the satisfaction of seeing fear.
"Go ahead," he said coldly. "But remember this — empires can be destroyed, but ideas never die. Zogo is bigger than me, bigger than you. You can kill Kaiden Voss… but you can't kill what I've created."
Adrian tilted his head, almost pitying. "That's where you're wrong."
The gunshot thundered.
Pain exploded in Kaiden's chest. The world tilted, the skyline splitting in two. He stumbled back, the taste of iron flooding his mouth. The city lights flickered like dying stars.
His knees hit the marble floor. Evelyn's face swam above him, blurred with tears — whether of guilt or fear, he no longer cared. Marcus whispered something, but Kaiden's ears rang too loudly to hear.
Adrian knelt beside him, voice low enough for only him to hear.
"You failed not because you were weak… but because you trusted."
The world went dark.
---
Silence.
For a moment, Kaiden thought this was death — endless void, no sound, no light, nothing but regret. But then…
ding
A sound echoed in his mind. Mechanical, cold, yet alive.
> [Origin System initializing…]
[User: Kaiden Voss detected.]
[Status: Fatal. Body destroyed.]
[Activating Rebirth Protocol.]
His mind spun. What was this? Some hallucination in his dying brain?
The voice continued, steady and undeniable:
> [Time reversal initiated.]
[Warning: Significant fate interference detected.]
[Rebirth commencing…]
And then, light.
Blinding, searing light filled his vision. His body felt weightless, as though torn apart and rebuilt from fragments. His chest no longer burned. The ringing faded.
When he opened his eyes again, he wasn't in the Zogo Tower. He wasn't even a man.
He was small. Weak. His hands — no longer calloused, no longer scarred — were tiny, delicate, the hands of a child.
Panic surged. He stumbled toward a mirror on the wall of a modest bedroom — not the penthouse, not the empire he knew.
And what stared back at him wasn't the billionaire genius Kaiden Voss… but a boy no older than five.
His breath caught. His heart thundered.
He knew this room. He knew this house. He knew this face.
It was his childhood home.
He was five years old again.
Impossible…
But before his thoughts could spiral, the voice returned:
> [Rebirth successful.]
[User returned to Year 20XX, Age: 5.]
[All memories retained.]
[Origin System fully integrated.]
And then… pain.
His left hand burned. Kaiden cried out, clutching it — and as he stared, a mark carved itself into his skin in glowing silver: a sword entwined by a white serpent, its eyes crimson and unblinking.
The mark pulsed once. His vision blurred. For a heartbeat, he saw the city again — not as it was, but as it would be: towers crumbling, nations burning, crowds chanting Adrian Veyne's name like a god.
And then it was gone.
Kaiden's breath trembled, but his eyes hardened.
So this was his second chance. His punishment, or his gift.
He wasn't just alive again. He wasn't just reborn. He was armed.
This time, there would be no hesitation. No mercy. No misplaced trust.
He would rise higher than before, crush every enemy, manipulate every ally, and reclaim Zogo not just as currency — but as an empire that no one could ever take from him again.
And when the day came, he would face Adrian Veyne not as the betrayed victim… but as the serpent that devours gods.
Kaiden Voss had died once.
But the Serpent Emperor had just been born.
---
To be continued...