Five days after Kai was reborn, he walked through the main streets of Heiligenstadt, blending in like any other citizen.
His appearance had shifted—his hair now a faded peach, his face sharper, more mature, almost unrecognizable. No one would have thought this man had once died inside a Rift.
He wore simple modern clothes: black jeans, a windbreaker, and a cap. Nothing flashy, but clean.
He'd already rented an apartment on the east side of the city—cheap, around €540 a month, and surprisingly well-maintained for the price.
In those five days, he had bought basic appliances and secondhand furniture for under €1000.
How did he afford it? Simple. Back in the Rift, when he fought and devoured mutated beings—even ones that didn't deserve it—he instinctively extracted genes.
At the time, he didn't know why. But those fragments were useless, and at the rift, he sold them discreetly through the black market. He earned just enough to rebuild a life.
Now, Kai headed toward the city's underbelly. He entered an old tunnel station, no longer in use, and followed a long passage lit by flickering lamps.
He stopped beneath a rusted stairwell, checking his watch.
A minute later, someone tapped his shoulder.
A tall man in a black coat stood behind him, wearing a simple white mask. "Are you Ottokai?" he asked.
Kai nodded. "Yes."
The man handed him a thin folder. Kai opened it and flipped through the contents: a new identity, fake records, school history, citizenship entries. Clean and ready to pass scrutiny.
Kai handed him a thick envelope with €1000 in cash. The man nodded once, then walked away without another word.
Now armed with a new identity, Kai turned and climbed back toward the surface. He had what he needed.
A name, a place to sleep, and a plan. Ottokai was real now.
---
Inside a quiet corner of the Heiligenstadt Police Department, a man sat in the dim-lit break room, eyes fixed on the TV.
He had a scar running down his jaw, faded but deep, a mark from battles long past.
The news droned on about Rift incidents and missing persons, but he wasn't really watching. His mind was elsewhere.
He clenched his fist slowly, staring blankly. He has to be alive.
Wenzel remembered years ago, when Kai's father lay dying—wracked by sickness, bones sharp beneath skin, eyes dull with fading life.
That night, the old man spoke of the parasite that lived within him. He called it a cursed blessing.
He said the parasite had a pact—one made long ago. If it ever met a rightful heir, a perfect host, then at the moment of that host's death… it would give them another chance.
It was something whispered in the Vogel Lineage myths.
But every time, that promise never came true. Not for Kai's father, not for the others, no host was ever revived. That's why Wenzel couldn't stop thinking about it.
The door opened behind him with a soft metallic click.
A tall girl stepped into the room, her hair a washed-out pink, her presence sharp. She wore a long coat, heavy boots, and a familiar cracked mask hanging loosely from her side. The kind of mask you only wore when hiding too much.
"If I didn't call you back then, we would've all died," she said, voice dry but clear.
She was talking about the Rift. About the moment Heloxian soldiers had surrounded Marin and Grin. It was Wenzel who'd broken through the perimeter, just in time.
"Yeah..." he muttered, glancing over his shoulder. "Keep watching them for something, Neavulis."
The girl gave a subtle nod, folding her arms.
"I will."
---
Kai stepped into his apartment, pushed the door shut behind him, and kicked off his shoes without much care. The lights were already on.
The place was modest—clean, sparse, and functional. A small table sat near the window, and on it was a cheap but reliable €400 laptop. The screen glowed in the dim room, casting soft blue light across the walls.
Someone was already using it.
"Hey," Kai said, not even surprised. "How's the device? Did you manage to steal the same driver the GCC uses for their Gene Scanner? And did you cut the previous channels?"
Sitting cross-legged on the table, no bigger than a coffee mug, was the miniature Heloxian Knight—scarred, dented, and smug. Somehow, when Kai shoved him into his pocket that day, the parasite had died from the lava. And when Kai came back, so did he.
"Yes, yes…" the tiny Heloxian said in a pompous voice, poking at the keyboard with a pencil Kai had chewed on earlier. "Do you ever doubt me? I'm great, aren't I?"
"You're small," Kai replied flatly.
"Size means nothing. My neurons process information at the rate of seven million deci-stacks per se—"
"Yeah, I don't care."
"Hmph. You're just jealous I know what a deci-stack is."
Kai rolled his eyes and grabbed the modified Gene Scanner resting on a shelf nearby. It was larger than the standard handheld model now—bulkier, fitted with makeshift antennae, layered heat sinks, and a side panel wired open to show its raw internals. It looked like someone had forced an alien computer to mate with a car battery.
"This thing better work," Kai muttered.
The Heloxian crossed his arms. "Of course it will. I rebuilt it using Heloxian tech, GCC fragments, and that blender you never use."
"You touched my blender?"
"...No..."
Kai sighed, opened the side panel of the scanner, and got to work.
Manny crossed his tiny arms and stood proudly on the edge of the table as Kai inspected the modified Gene Scanner.
The device hummed faintly, its crude antennas twitching with scattered signals.
"I upgraded it," Manny declared. "This isn't just a scanner anymore—it's a Gene Development Interface now or GDI for short. Sounds professional, doesn't it?"
Kai didn't look up. "Talk."
"Alright, alright," Manny said, adjusting his imaginary glasses. "I've integrated the GCC's internal leveling framework. Normally, only official agents get access to this system—tracks Parasite synchronization, genetic loadout compatibility, overall combat efficiency, stuff like that."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "So it ranks me?"
"More or less," Manny said. "The system assigns numerical levels to both your Parasite and your gene adaptations based on experience, mutation control, override usage, and the complexity of your fused traits."
He tapped the screen, and a basic UI lit up, displaying:
[PARASITE HOST INTERFACE – ACTIVE SYNC]
[Host: Ottokai Von Seraphis
Parasite: SEKH-LAMIR
Origin Classification: Riftborne Transcendent (Rare – Ancestral Fragment)
Evolution Path: Neural Symbiote
Cultivation Layer: Instinct Layer – Tier I
GeneDevourer Status: Early-Stage Hybridization
---
[CORE STATS]
Host Level: 1
Parasite Level: 1
Gene Count: 3]
Kai squinted. "Level one? Are you kidding me?"
Manny sighed. "Yep. Hard reset. It recalibrates when you assume a new identity, especially one not registered in any database. Your old host signature's gone, so to the system, you're a fresh rookie."
"So all the monsters I fought, mutations I survived, none of that counts?"
"Emotionally? Sure. Technically? Not a byte," Manny said. "But look on the bright side—this time, you'll be smarter. You won't waste points on garbage mutations like 'Fertile Sac.'"
Kai grimaced. "I liked that one."
"Well, I didn't."
He pointed to a tab. "Each level gives you Trait Points for upgrades. Parasite Level affects Sekh's evolution tree—like Spinal growth, Neural fusion, all that good juicy horror. Host Level affects how many stable plates you can load and your override efficiency."
Kai sat back and looked at the screen. "So everything starts over... but the rules are clear now."
"Exactly," Manny said, hands on his hips. "No more chaos. You've got progress bars."
Kai smirked. "I hate progress bars."
"Then fill them faster."
Kai scrolled through the GDI interface, then frowned. "What's this part about Cultivation Layers?"
Manny glanced over and pointed with his tiny hand. "Ah, that. It's basically a tier system built on your Parasite and Gene Levels combined. GCC tracks it to categorize operatives. Right now, you're Level 1, which puts you in Tier I of the Instinct Layer."
"So when do I hit Tier II?"
"When you hit Level 10. That's the threshold. Then Tier III kicks in at Level 30," Manny explained. "After that, I don't know. GCC keeps the info locked unless you're at their clearance."
Kai leaned back, thinking. "So I can reach higher Layers just by leveling?"
"Yes, but don't expect some insane power spike every tier. It's not like you hit Level 10 and suddenly explode with new powers. It just means your base stats improve, your Parasite gets stronger at syncing, and you're allowed to bind more complex mutations without losing control."
Kai nodded. "Alright, so Level 10 gets me Instinct Layer Tier II. Got it."
"Exactly. Think of it as expanding your genetic bandwidth. More loadouts, faster override cooldowns, fewer random mutations."
Kai grunted. "And no shortcut?"
"Nope," Manny said. "You gotta grind. Mutation syncing, parasite override success, field experience—all of that feeds the level curve. The faster you adapt, the faster you level."
Kai picked up the scanner again. "So I have to start everything from the bottom."
"You already started from the bottom once," Manny shrugged. "This is just the sequel."
Kai smirked. "Great. I can't wait to see the final boss."
Kai leaned over the desk and asked, "Alright, Manny. Any Rift nearby I can hit right now?"
Manny pulled up a local scan on the laptop. "Yep. A few around Heiligenstadt, but most are high-tier and crawling with GCC scouts. There's one that stands out though—an F-minus class Rift. Low activity, weak spawns, barely patrolled. But it's up in the mountains, kinda isolated."
Kai glanced at the map and sighed. "So I've gotta climb."
"Pretty much. It's your best shot without drawing heat," Manny said, pointing to the blinking marker.
Kai stood up and cracked his knuckles. "Sekh, get ready. We're heading out."
Sekh stirred from the depths of his mind. "Understood. But something's changed… since you were revived, I've noticed. You're weaker."
Kai wasn't surprised. "Yeah. It makes sense. Everything's reset."
"Your mutation stability is low. And your override sync is unstable."
"Figures," Kai muttered. "Guess I'm grinding again from zero."
Without wasting time, he left his apartment and unlocked the rental bike outside. It was cheap, basic, but enough to get to the trailhead. As he pedaled through the city, his plan was clear—get to the Rift, harvest genes, stabilize what he could, and sell the excess for cash.
If he was going to rebuild, it'd start here—one weak Rift at a time.