[Global Message Received:
Welcome, Players.
Your planet has been chosen for the Game of gods.
The planet has entered the beta phase.
Objective: Survive until the main game
Time until main game: 180 days
]
[You have been assigned: Class Awakening Eligibility.]
[Choose to begin, or die naturally.]
People around the world screamed. Some begged for their gods. Others opened fire at things that shouldn't be crawling from underground fissures.
Grey just laughed.
So it was real. My theory was right.
Grey had always believed that their time on earth was limited, and some gods were behind them, but he had never been able to prove it.
[Would you like to Awaken your Class?]
Yes, Grey said calmly.
[Class Awakened: DEATH SOVEREIGN]
[Rarity: MYTHIC]
[You are now the Sovereign of the Dead.]
[Gained no starter weapon, as awakened class can use any weapon.]
[System inventory unlocked]
Something cracked beneath his skin.
Not his bones.
His soul.
A pressure like a thousand lives screaming surged through him, an avalanche of emotion, memory, and power. His heart stopped, then rebooted. His blood went cold, then burned. A dark mist unfurled from his body, wrapping around him like a cloak of dread.
He gasped once. And then the transformation finished.
Grey's eyes were no longer human.
They glowed pale green, twin torches in a dying world.
Below, chaos reigned. The streets had become hunting grounds. One of the monsters—a six-legged, chitinous beast the size of a truck—leapt from a building and crushed three people in a single stomp.
Grey stepped to the edge of the roof and raised a hand.
Come.
The first of the dead rose.
A crushed body twisted, bones snapping into place, eyes igniting with ghostly light. Then another. And another. Mangled corpses of civilians and soldiers alike began to twitch. They stood with broken spines, missing arms, and slashed throats.
They stood because he willed it.
[You have raised 17 Bone Thralls.]
Kael grinned, teeth white against the black storm behind him.
I guess I'll be king of the end, then.
Five blocks away, a boy cried beneath a crushed car.
A monster lumbered toward him.
Kael lifted his arm again. "March."
Seventeen undead charged as one. Silent. Swift. Ruthless. They tore into the beast like starved hounds. And when it fell, Kael felt it.
[Thralls have gained Beast-Type Traits.]
[Strength increased. Bite evolved.]
Oh, Kael said, delighted. You learn.
He turned his gaze to the city.
There were millions of monsters. Billions more would come in the main game.
But every time something died, he grew.
He didn't need alliances.
He didn't need safety.
He didn't even need to fight directly.
Kael Stroud would become a walking kingdom.
Of graves and legends.
Of everything this world thought it buried and left behind.
[WARNING: Cataclysm Boss descended.]
[Location: 0.5 km from your position.]
[Kill Rewards: Global Ranking point, and Unique Skill Fragment]
Kael turned without fear.
A massive beast erupted from the street—twenty feet tall, dozens of insectoid legs, a face like a skull wrapped in wet sinew, and a tail tipped with jagged obsidian.
Around it, nothing lived.
It screamed a sound that shattered windows.
Kael stared it down.
Then he stepped forward.