Chapter 1: The Golden Anchor
The humid air in the Seoul Awakening Plaza was thick, heavy with the metallic tang of ozone and the sour scent of thousands of unwashed bodies. It felt like the atmosphere itself was waiting for something to snap. Ren Kaelen adjusted the hood of his faded sweatshirt, his fingers nervously picking at a loose thread. His stomach gave a slow, hollow growl—a familiar companion. He was nineteen, but his face carried the etched, tired lines of a man who had spent his life navigating the shadows of District 9. For Ren, today wasn't about glory; it was about survival.
Around him, the crowd vibrated with a desperate, feverish hope. They looked at the massive obsidian Awakening Pillar in the center of the square as if it were a god descended to grant wishes. Ren just wanted a way out. Give me a Scout class, he prayed silently, his heart thudding against his ribs. Just enough agility to run deliveries for the mid-tier guilds. He didn't want a throne. He just wanted to stop worrying about the rent for his fourth-floor walk-up.
He glanced toward the center stage, where the "Sun" of the city stood. A literal wall of silver-armored paladins stood there, guarding the world's most expensive teenager: Elena Valentine. Even from fifty yards away, she looked untouchable. Her silver hair was pinned back with a precision that felt almost violent, her violet eyes scanning the horizon with a bored, icy distance. She wasn't praying for a class; she was waiting for her coronation.
To Ren's left stood a girl clutching a heavy leather bag. Mia Han. She smelled of coal and burnt oil, her face smudged with a bit of soot she'd missed in her rush to get here. She was vibrating with nerves, her knuckles white as she gripped a small blacksmithing hammer for luck.
"The Pillar is activating!" someone screamed.
The obsidian spire didn't glow blue like the history books said it should. It throbbed. A low-frequency hum started in Ren's marrow, a sound so deep it made his teeth feel loose in his gums. The sky, usually a dull, smoggy grey, bruised into a dark, angry purple. Then, the world tore open.
It wasn't a bolt of lightning. It was a jagged, golden rift in the fabric of reality that spat out three glowing ribbons of light. Before Ren could even blink, one of those ribbons slammed into his chest.
It didn't pierce his skin. It hooked his soul.
[CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR]
[INDIVIDUAL AWAKENING ABORTED]
[TRINITY SOUL-BOND INITIATED]
Ren was yanked off his feet with a violent, sickening jerk. His sneakers skidded uselessly across the asphalt as he was dragged forward by an invisible force. To his left, Mia let out a strangled yelp as she was pulled toward him. From the center of the square, a silver-and-white blur—Elena—was being dragged through the crowd like a hooked fish, her bodyguards shouting in a blind panic as they failed to grab her.
They slammed into each other in a tangled, messy heap in a narrow, trash-strewn alleyway at the edge of the plaza.
Ren gasped, his lungs feeling like they'd been flattened. He looked up to find himself inches away from Elena Valentine. She was gasping for air, her regal composure shattered, her violet eyes wide with a terror she couldn't hide.
"Get... away..." Elena hissed, pushing against Ren's chest. But as she tried to move more than a few inches, a glowing golden cord, thick as a rope, snapped taut between their hearts.
The pain was instantaneous. It felt like a branding iron was being pressed into their ribs. All three of them collapsed back onto the grime-stained concrete, clutching their chests in synchronized agony.
[THE TETHERED SOVEREIGNS]
Primary User: Ren Kaelen (Unranked)
Partners: Elena Valentine (S-Rank Scion), Mia Han (Crafting Heir)
Condition: [The Eternal Tether]
Maximum Distance Permitted: 50 Meters.
Penalty for Violation: Total Mana Collapse / Death.
"Fifty meters?" Elena whispered, her voice brittle and small. "I... I can't leave this... this gutter?"
Ren looked out toward the plaza. The Valentine enforcers were already moving, their heavy boots thudding against the pavement as they began a systematic sweep. They didn't look like they were coming to "rescue" anyone; they looked like a cleanup crew coming to erase a scandal before it could start.
"Look," Ren said, pointing at the flashing red timer in his vision. "Your family... if they find you hooked to a guy like me, they're going to 'clean' the situation. We have ten minutes to disappear."
[QUEST: THE MODEST THRESHOLD]
Objective: Retreat to the Primary User's 'Safe Zone' (Apartment 4B).
Time Limit: 10:00 Minutes.
Reward: 10,000 Credits & System Shop Access.
"Ten thousand credits?" Mia gasped, her eyes widening behind her soot-streaked hair. "Ren... that's more than my father makes in two months."
"I don't care about the money!" Elena snapped, though she flinched as a guard's shout echoed nearby. "I am a Valentine! I am not going to some... some orphan's hovel!"
"Then you can stay here and die," Ren said, his voice turning cold as ice. He grabbed Mia's hand—it was warm and trembling—and looked at Elena. "But if I run, you're coming with me anyway. Fate just made us a package deal. Move!"
The run was a nightmare. Every time one of them went too fast, the others felt the "tug"—a sickening, nauseating pull on their internal organs. They moved like a panicked, three-headed animal through the backstreets of District 9, weaving through narrow gaps in fences and jumping over rusted mana-pipes.
They finally reached a brick tenement building that looked like it was held together by grime, prayer, and duct tape. Ren fumbled with the key, his fingers slick with sweat, and shoved the door open. They burst inside, slamming the door and locking the deadbolt just as the ten-minute timer hit zero.
[QUEST COMPLETE]
[REWARD: 10,000 CREDITS DEPOSITED]
[SYSTEM SHOP UNLOCKED]
The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the sound of three people trying to remember how to breathe. The apartment was tiny. A single twin bed with a mismatched quilt sat in the corner; a kitchen table with one wobbly chair stood by a sink that dripped with a rhythmic, annoying thud.
Elena Valentine stood in the center of the cracked linoleum, looking like a swan trapped in a sewer. She looked at Ren's pile of laundry in the corner, then at the single, narrow bed, and her face went through five different stages of grief in ten seconds.
[NEW DAILY QUEST: THE FIRST TWENTY-FOUR]
Objective: Remain within the 'Tether Zone' (Apartment 4B) for 24 hours.
Reward: 5,000 Credits & [Shared Skill Tree] Initialization.
"Five thousand credits just to stay here?" Mia whispered, leaning her back against the sink for support.
"It's not just for staying," Ren said, sliding down the back of the door until he hit the floor. His legs felt like jelly. "It's forcing us to be together. One room. One bed. One bathroom."
Elena looked at the tiny beaded curtain that served as a bathroom door. She looked at the gold cord pulsing between her and the orphan on the floor.
"I am going to kill you," she said, her voice small and brittle. "I'm going to kill you as soon as this cord disappears."
"Fair enough," Ren muttered, looking up at the peeling ceiling. "But for tonight? We're stuck. And I think we're going to need a bigger bed."