Darkness.
It wrapped around him like a suffocating cloak, thick and merciless. He felt weightless, adrift between existence and oblivion. No pain. No breath. Only the fading echo of a life that had ended far too brutally.
And beneath that darkness… he heard voices.
Muffled. Cold. Cruel.
"Hold him still."
A boot pressed into his chest, forcing the last gasp of air out of his lungs. His vision blurred, but he could still make out the silhouettes of the three figures surrounding him. The warehouse lights flickered above, casting ghostly shadows across the abandoned space.
"Prince, why do you make things so difficult?"
A man crouched beside him, tapping a blood-stained knife against his palm. "You know too much. Didn't your parents teach you that curiosity kills?"
Prince Williams—yes, that had been his name—could barely move. His wrists were tied behind his back, ropes digging into his skin. His head throbbed where they had struck him. He could taste iron in his mouth.
He had only wanted to help.
Only wanted to report the illegal trafficking ring he stumbled upon.
Because he believed that good people should act.
Because he thought kindness still mattered.
He had been naive.
"You should have minded your business," the second man snarled, kicking him in the ribs. Pain shot through him, sharp and blinding.
Prince coughed, trying to gather breath. "I… wasn't trying to—"
"We don't care what you were trying to do," the leader said coldly. His voice was smooth, like someone who had killed many times before. "It's a shame. You're a good kid. Too good."
He lifted the knife.
Prince's eyes widened with terror he couldn't hide. He struggled against the ropes, but they only tightened. His heart raced—not from cowardice, but from the brutal recognition that his life was about to end in a dark warehouse with no one even knowing he was missing.
"All that kindness…" the man whispered. "This world doesn't reward it."
The knife plunged downward, and—
Everything went black.
For a while, Prince drifted in the void, suspended between death and something else. Regret washed over him like cold rain.
He remembered being called soft. Too good. Too trusting.
Even the people he helped often used him.
And in the end, his goodness had led him to his grave.
"Is that really how my story ends…?" he whispered into the darkness, voice trembling. "Killed because I tried to do the right thing?"
No answer came.
But then… a spark ignited in his chest.
A deep, simmering anger.
A vow forming from the ashes of his broken soul.
"If there is a second chance," he said, each word trembling with the weight of his resolve, "I won't waste it being good. I won't be stepped on. I won't be used."
His voice grew sharper, colder.
"I will rise. I will become someone no one can harm. Someone no one can betray. Someone the world itself will fear if it tries to break me."
The darkness shifted. The void rippled.
He clenched his fists in that emptiness.
"I swear… if I ever live again, I will never be too good."
The world around him cracked.
A blinding light exploded—
—and Prince gasped violently as air returned to his lungs.
He fell forward onto damp grass, coughing as though breaking through the surface of a deep ocean. His fingers dug into cold soil. His chest heaved.
He was alive.
He opened his eyes.
And froze.
He was lying in a forest shrouded in twilight. Ancient trees twisted upward, their branches forming skeletal shapes against the dim gray sky. A faint mist drifted through the air, glowing faintly with ghostly blue light. The atmosphere felt heavy, almost alive.
"What… is this place?" he whispered, his breath forming pale vapor in the cold air.
He slowly pushed himself up, legs trembling beneath him. His clothes were unfamiliar—a dark, fitted robe lined with silver thread, far too elegant to belong to Earth. His hair brushed against his shoulders, longer than he ever kept it. His body felt stronger. Taller. Different.
He stumbled toward a small pool of still water and stared.
The reflection wasn't his.
Sharp jawline.
Silver eyes glowing faintly.
Hair black as midnight.
A face far too regal, far too dangerous, far too… otherworldly.
"Who… am I?"
And then the memories hit him.
Not his memories.
The memories of another life entirely.
A boy raised in a cruel world.
A talent feared by many.
A reputation dreaded by all.
A path filled with blood and ambition.
The name surfaced like a whisper in a storm:
Valerius Nightstar.
A prodigy.
A villain.
A future calamity.
And somehow—Prince had been reborn as him.
He staggered back, heart thundering. "No… this can't be real."
He remembered dying.
Remembered the knife.
Remembered the vow.
But this… this was beyond anything he could comprehend.
"How am I alive?" he whispered. "Why this body? Why here?"
The forest offered no answers.
He looked around again. Darkness was everywhere—thick, suffocating, broken only by faint streaks of moonlight that barely illuminated the twisted vines and ancient roots. The air hummed with energy. Strange, dangerous energy.
"Am I… in another world?"
His pulse quickened.
A rustling sound echoed in the distance. He spun around, body instinctively ready to defend itself. But there was nothing—only shadows dancing between the trees.
A sudden pain shot through his skull.
"Ah—!"
He clenched his head as memories—not just Valerius's, but his own—collided violently.
Earth.
The warehouse.
The kindness that ruined him.
The vow he made in the darkness.
And then—
A spark.
A shift.
Something inside him unlocked.
A voice filled his mind—deep, ancient, echoing like thunder across the heavens.
[Eternal Sovereign System Booting…]
Prince froze. His breath hitched.
The voice continued, resonating with authority and boundless power.
[Host Identified: Valerius Nightstar (Reborn)]
[Spirit Integrity: 100%]
[Soul Awakening Successful]
[System Level: God-Defying]
[Purpose: To break fate, rewrite destiny, and ascend beyond existence.]
A glowing blue screen appeared before his eyes, floating in the air.
Prince's heart pounded as he read the title.
Eternal Sovereign System
A chill ran down his spine.
This wasn't an ordinary system.
This wasn't a cheat.
This was something beyond mortal logic—something that defied the heavens themselves.
His vow…
His rage…
His refusal to stay weak…
Had summoned something unimaginable.
He swallowed hard. "A… system? A real system?"
The words glowed brighter.
[Yes, Host.]
He stiffened. "You can… hear my thoughts?"
[I am bound to your soul. Your will shapes my purpose. You desired power. I answer that desire.]
His heart raced. "Why me? Why bring me here?"
[Because your goodness led you to death.]
Prince's eyes widened.
[Because you were too pure for your world.]
The forest wind howled softly.
[Because you wished for a second chance.]
He clenched his fists, emotion rising in his throat.
[Because your vow resonated with fate itself.]
The system pulsed with light.
[From this moment, you shall walk the path of absolute sovereignty. No gods, no demons, no mortals shall dictate your destiny.]
Prince inhaled sharply. A fire ignited in his chest. Raw determination. Burning ambition. The desire to never be weak again.
The vow he made before death whispered through his mind again:
If I get a second chance… I will no longer be good.
He lifted his gaze to the dark forest, a dangerous calm settling in his heart.
"Fine," he whispered, voice steady. "If fate threw me away once… then this time, I will seize it. I will rise. I will dominate. I will never be powerless again."
The system flickered.
[Then rise, Host. Your journey has begun.]
A faint smile curved his lips.
Prince Williams died as a gentle soul.
Valerius Nightstar rose as something far more dangerous.
And in the silent, eerie forest—under the dim glow of a dying moon—his new life began.
His rebirth.
His rise.
His endless cultivation journey.
Guided by the one thing that no god could control:
The Eternal Sovereign System.