Three days after Zhao Hu's body was completely devoured, the global server rang with a blood-red announcement that no one understood at the time:
[Hidden Condition Met: Perfect Hatred Refusal to Die + Talent Residue Remaining in the Void]
[Player "Zhao Hu" has triggered "Abyss Rebirth"]
[Current Status: Soul Fragment Reconstruction… 17%… 38%… 71%… Complete]
In a stinking sewer hundreds of kilometers away, a naked figure crawled out of a cocoon woven from pure darkness.
Every cell in his body screamed with hatred so intense it distorted space.
Zhao Hu opened his eyes—now two bottomless voids that reflected nothing.
He remembered being torn apart, digested, erased.
He remembered the taste of absolute annihilation.
And he laughed.
"Zhou Jun… you can devour my body, my talent, my very name…
but you can never devour what I was born with."
He pressed a hand to his chest.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
A second heart—made entirely of hatred—was beating there.
"I alone may not be enough to kill you now," he whispered to the empty air.
"But what about my family?"
The Zhao Clan—one of the four hidden ancient awakener bloodlines of Dragon Country.
In his previous life, Zhou Jun only learned of their existence when they stood at the very apex of humanity in year 7 of the Cataclysm.
They never showed themselves in the early stages because they didn't need to.
They waited, like spiders, for the world to grow fat with power—then harvested.
Zhao Hu returned to the ancestral ground hidden in the Qinling Mountains.
He knelt in the main hall, head bowed, and told them everything:
How he was humiliated, dismembered, killed, devoured.
How a single reborn ant dared to trample the dignity of the Zhao name.
The Grand Elder, an old monster who had lived for 300 years through continuous body replacement, slammed his dragon-headed cane on the ground.
"Someone dares touch a direct descendant of my Zhao bloodline?"
Another elder, Zhao Hu's own grandfather, had killing intent so thick it froze the air.
"That Zhou boy… his parents still live in the old city district, yes?"
Zhao Hu lowered his head, hiding the twisted smile on his face.
"Yes."
The clan meeting lasted less than five minutes.
Decision: Exterminate the bloodline root and stem.
Leave the sister alive—so Zhou Jun can taste what true despair feels like.
November 18, 2025 — 2:14 a.m.
Zhou Jun was still unconscious in the military ICU, wrapped in life-support tubes.
His sister Zhou Ling sat by his bed, holding his hand, refusing to sleep.
At that exact moment, in the old civilian district 40 kilometers away.
The small two-room apartment where Zhou Jun was born exploded without warning.
Seven black-robed figures descended from the sky.
His father—ordinary, kind, still wearing his factory work clothes—didn't even have time to scream before his body was torn into six pieces by shadow blades.
His mother tried to run to the bedroom to get the old photo album.
A single finger from the weakest Zhao elder crushed her spine, then slowly, deliberately peeled her shadow from her body while she was still alive.
The entire process was live-streamed through a darkness mirror straight to Zhou Jun's hospital room.
Zhou Ling watched her parents die in the most cruel way possible.
She screamed until her vocal cords tore.
The heart-rate monitor beside Zhou Jun's bed suddenly went berserk.
Cracks appeared on Zhou Jun's comatose body.
Black and crimson runes fought across his skin like warring dragons.
His talent—Infinite Devour—was rejecting the SS-rank darkness he had taken from Zhao Hu.
Or rather… the darkness was rejecting him.
In the darkness of his mind, a voice that should no longer exist laughed.
"Did you really think devouring me would be that simple?"
Zhao Hu's remnant soul fragment, hidden inside the SS talent like a virus, launched its final counterattack.
[Talent Contention In Progress…]
[Host Consciousness Severely Suppressed…]
[Warning: Risk of Permanent Talent Theft]
Zhou Jun's eyes snapped open—left eye blood red, right eye pitch black.
He ripped out every tube, every needle, and stood up barefoot.
The military guards outside the door only saw a blur before their necks were broken.
Zhou Ling threw herself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Brother… Mom and Dad… they're gone… they're really gone…"
Zhou Jun's embrace was ice cold.
He saw everything through the darkness mirror that was still floating in the room.
He saw the Zhao clansmen laughing as they burned the last photo of his family.
Something inside him shattered forever.
Fifteen minutes later.
Qinling Mountains — Zhao Clan ancestral ground.
The mountain protection array that had never been breached in 800 years exploded into fragments.
Zhou Jun arrived alone.
His left half was wrapped in crimson devour runes.
His right half had already turned into living darkness.
He was tearing himself apart from the inside just to keep moving.
Seven Zhao elders + three half-step SSS ancestors + Zhao Hu who had been hiding in the shadows.
Ten apex predators against one gravely wounded man who should already be dead.
The result was still a massacre.
But this time, the one being massacred was Zhou Jun.
Shadow lances pierced his body hundreds of times.
Void chains bound his four limbs and slowly pulled.
Zhao Hu walked out, his new body rebuilt from the clan's forbidden technique.
He pressed a hand to Zhou Jun's chest.
"Any last words?"
Zhou Jun spat a mouthful of blood in his face and laughed—like a devil who had already lost everything.
"My last words… are for my parents."
His heart detonated on the spot.
[Infinite Devour — Forced Overload]
[Self-Destruction Sequence Activated]
A black-crimson sun rose over the Qinling Mountains.
Everything within a five-kilometer radius—mountains, arrays, elders, ancestors—was devoured in less than three seconds.
Only Zhao Hu, protected by the clan's final forbidden artifact, survived.
But the price was steep.
The artifact shattered, and the backlash turned half his body into withered charcoal.
Still, he knelt in the ruins and laughed until he coughed blood.
Because the moment Zhou Jun's heart exploded, the contention ended.
[Talent Theft Successful]
[Infinite Devour + Lord of Eternal Night + Zhao Ancient Bloodline Forbidden Technique → Perfect Fusion]
[New Talent: Mutated SSS-Rank — Abyss Sovereign Devourer]
[All former limitations removed. Can now devour concepts, laws, and even other talents at range.]
Zhao Hu stood up shakily and looked at the only thing left in the center of the crater—
Zhou Jun's body, missing arms, legs, and most of his torso, yet somehow still breathing.
"Sleep," Zhao Hu whispered, stroking what was left of Zhou Jun's face.
"When you wake up… I will let you watch me devour your sister, piece by piece."
Boom—!!
The sky was torn open by hundreds of strategic-level strikes.
Three generals leading thirty thousand elite awakened troops descended like gods of war.
They were here under direct order from the highest authority:
"Retrieve Zhou Jun at all costs. Eliminate any and all hostiles."
But they were still too late.
When they arrived, the Zhao ancestral ground had already become a dead zone where no light could exist.
Zhao Hu stood in the center, dragging Zhou Jun's broken body with one hand like a corpse puppet.
He looked up at the sky full of warships and smiled.
"Too late."
Then he tore open a void rift and vanished with Zhou Jun.
The last thing the generals saw was a server-wide blood-red announcement:
[Player "Zhao Hu" has obtained Mutated SSS-Rank talent.]
[Current threat level: Global Catastrophe]
[All safe zones enter maximum alert.]
In the ICU of the highest-security military hospital.
Zhou Jun lies in an artificial sarcophagus filled with life-sustaining fluid.
Brain-dead.
Four limbs gone.
Heart missing.
Talent stolen.
Only a faint trace of devour runes still flickers on his forehead—proof that he is not completely dead.
His sister Zhou Ling kneels beside the sarcophagus day and night, refusing food and water.
And somewhere in the endless abyss, Zhao Hu's laughter echoes:
"Wake up, Zhou Jun.
The game… has only just begun."