The blade split the wind, carrying with it a foul stench of rust and blood that rushed straight toward him.
The touch of death was icy, thick enough to congeal the air and clog every pore on Lucian Thorn's body. He could even make out the tiny cracks on the edge of the blade, and in the cyclopean pirate's one murky eye, the reflection of his own terror-twisted face.
It was over.
To die miserably in a foreign world right after transmigrating—there could hardly be a more absurd script than this.
No reversal of fate. No "thirty years east of the river."
Only a clean, fatal strike.
Lucian's mind went blank. He gave up struggling and instinctively shut his eyes.
Farewell, damn world.
Yet at the very fraction of a second when the blade was about to slice through his carotid artery—
[Ding!]
A crisp, cold electronic chime exploded in the depths of his consciousness without warning. It didn't belong to this world, yet it was so clear it felt pressed right against his eardrums.
Lucian's body jolted violently.
A hallucination? The final dream before death?
[Detected: host's will to survive has reached threshold…]
[Final Protocol triggered… Binding soul…]
[Binding successful.]
[God-Level Space-Time Summoning System, officially activated.]
One after another, the mechanical prompts thundered in his deadened soul like the fiercest war drums!
A system!
The golden finger had arrived!
A surge of wild joy, like magma erupting from the depths of his frozen heart, burst forth and swept through every inch of his body, burning away the icy despair.
I don't have to die!
Hahaha! I don't have to die!
Lucian nearly laughed madly to the sky. A last-second reversal—wasn't this the script of a chosen protagonist?!
"System! Quick! Summon! Summon me the strongest one!"
He roared with all his spirit in his mind: "Gojo Satoru, Saitama, Son Goku… anyone! Just someone who can blast these filthy pirates into paste!"
He could already picture it: an invincible figure descending from the heavens, crushing the hideous pirates into dust with a flick of their finger. Then he'd spit on the pile of mangled flesh!
But no miracle came.
That fatal cutlass still whistled through the air, mercilessly descending toward his neck!
What?!
Lucian's ecstasy froze solid.
[Warning: System's initial energy = 0.]
[Warning: Cannot execute any summon commands.]
The icy notifications poured over him like a bucket of glacial water, chilling him to the bone.
Zero energy?
No summoning?
Lucian's mind buzzed into numbness.
"…You've got to be kidding me." He could hardly believe his own "ears."
"You're activated, but you tell me there's no energy? That's like giving me a supercar with a full upgrade—without a single drop of fuel!"
[Host must acquire energy as soon as possible to unlock summoning function.]
The system's voice remained flat, emotionless.
Acquire energy? I'm about to get my head chopped off—where the hell am I supposed to find energy for you?!
Lucian's heart was dragged from heaven straight into an abyss.
This feeling was even worse than never having hope at all.
It handed him the brightest star in the universe, then shattered it in the next instant.
"Damn it…"
A silent, grief-stricken curse echoed in his heart.
This damned system—was it designed just to break his spirit?!
By now, the blade was right before him.
The chilling aura raised goosebumps on his neck. The cyclops' vicious grin magnified in his eyes.
Death's shadow once more, and this time for real, swallowed him whole.
No miracle.
A massive surge of unwillingness and despair clenched his heart.
But the instinct to survive crushed all else in that final moment.
Lucian's body reacted without thought—snapping backward!
"Slash!"
The rusted blade swept past the tip of his nose, leaving even a faint cut across his bridge!
"Huh?" The cyclops froze for a second, then grinned even wider.
So what if you dodged? Behind you lies a bottomless abyss!
Lucian's heel pressed against the cliff's edge. Loose gravel crumbled away.
Crack!
The ground beneath his foot gave way!
A wave of weightlessness seized him. His body pitched backward like a severed kite, tumbling into the chasm below!
Wind shrieked in his ears.
The world spun in reverse until it froze on one final image: the pirates' mocking faces, and the shattered blue sky overhead.
"Am I… going to fall to my death?"
The thought surfaced calmly. Compared to being beheaded, maybe… it wasn't much different.
He stopped resisting, letting his body tumble through the fog-veiled unknown.
The air rushing upward was thick with salty brine, snapping his clothes like banners.
"Boss, he fell!"
"From that height, he's done for—just a smear of flesh!"
"Damn! What a cheap way to die!"
The cyclops spat, cursed, then led his men away into the jungle.
Silence returned to the cliff's edge.
The fall stretched endlessly.
Lucian felt his soul tear free from his body, his consciousness blurring with the descent.
In his mind, the mechanical voice kept dutifully droning:
[Warning: Host's vitals rapidly deteriorating… 10%... 9%...]
[System Energy: 0. Unable to activate any protective protocols.]
"Shut up already…" he muttered weakly. "Can't you just… let me die quietly…"
But just as his awareness sank into eternal darkness—
Through the churning mist below, an impossibly vast shadow flashed past!
It was like… a moving mountain!
Then—
BOOM!!!
With an earth-shaking crash, Lucian's body slammed into an icy, soft, and strangely elastic "surface of water."