The rain battered the rusting lab roof like war drums, each drop echoing the chaos Elias Black felt in his chest.
He stood at the center of the research facility he helped build—drenched in fluorescent light, betrayal, and blood. Around him, broken vials leaked glowing fluid onto the floor. The place that once buzzed with breakthroughs and whispered secrets now slled of rust, ozone, and treachery.
"Why...?" Elias whispered, his voice low, his body trembling. "Why would you do this?"
Across from him stood Dr. Collins—his ntor, his friend. Now a traitor in a white coat stained with red.
"For power," Collins replied coldly. "And because you’re weak. You always had the brilliance, Elias, but no spine."
Elias winced as the pain flared in his ribs. The gunshot wound burned hotter than fire. He’d been shot by one of the security guards—on Collins’ orders. The sa guards he’d hired to protect the facility.
"This research could’ve saved lives—" Elias gasped, stumbling against a steel table.
"This research," Collins interrupted, "could have made us gods. But you wanted to share it with the world. That was your mistake."
Elias looked down at the blinking red screen on the main terminal: Potenus Gene Experint—System Core Active.
He had built the system to enhance dormant human potential using a coded gene-editing sequence—one that rged technology with the unknown. It was experintal. Dangerous. And powerful.
Now they were going to steal it, wipe his na from history, and leave him dead.
A sharp pain exploded in his back. Another shot. He fell forward, slamming into the console. The world blurred. His blood sared across the screen.
Collins leaned over him. "Goodbye, Elias. You were a visionary. But visionaries always die before the empire rises."
As the darkness closed in, sothing shifted.
The screen blinked.
Initiating fail-safe...
A red glow surrounded Elias’s body.
Rebinding Core. Host Detected. Integrating.
Collins backed away. "What the hell—?"
Then Elias scread.
His body convulsed. The pain was unbearable. Flas of energy crawled through his veins like electricity dipped in poison. His eyes turned pitch black. He felt sothing—soone—enter him.
A voice. Cold. Smooth. Amused.
"So... you’re the one who summoned ."
Elias collapsed. The voice whispered again.
"You have been chosen, Elias Black. You died betrayed. You will rise with vengeance."
"I am the System. And I belong to the Devil."
---
Hours Later...
He woke up in the ruins of the lab, the floor scorched around him. The bullet wounds were gone.
The lab was empty—burned. Files stolen. Evidence erased. But sothing had changed in him.
His fingers twitched. His reflection in the cracked monitor showed eyes that glowed faintly red. The System had fused with his soul, binding him to sothing far darker than science.
A screen blinked inside his mind.
> [Welco, Elias Black.]
[Mission: Collect 1000 Vengeance Points.]
[Task 1: Track and eliminate traitor—Collins.]
[Reward: Unlock Skill—Soulfire Pulse.]
[Warning: The Devil watches your journey. Fail, and your soul will be his.]
Elias stood slowly, his breathing calm, too calm. The old him—the hopeful genius—was gone.
Now, there was only fire.
He looked out into the storm beyond the lab doors.
"I will find you, Collins," Elias whispered. "And I will burn everything you built to the ground."
Then he smiled.
And the Devil smiled with him.
The wind outside the lab cut through Elias like a knife, but he barely felt it.
He walked barefoot through the ashes of what had once been the proudest achievent of his life. The air reeked of scorched wires and lted tal. And yet... he felt alive. Reborn. Like sothing old and vengeful had curled up inside his spine and was breathing with him.
The Devil’s System, it had called itself.
> [Passive Skill Activated: Pain Suppression—Level 1]
[Stamina Boosted. Body Reconstruction Complete.]
He stopped in front of the blown-out gates. His vision flickered briefly—like his eyes had learned to see sothing else. And they had.
A glowing red trail snaked along the concrete, invisible to human sight. But not to him.
> [Tracking Target: Dr. Collins.]
"Good," Elias muttered. His voice had changed. Deeper. Hollow.
He followed the trail.
---
Three Miles Away—The Black Road
The trail led to a forest clearing beside the old highway—"The Black Road," locals called it. A forgotten path between towns, long buried under trees and whispers.
As he stepped beneath the gnarled branches, Elias felt sothing shift.
The world went quiet.
Too quiet.
A heartbeat echoed in his ears—but it wasn’t his.
> [Warning: Hostile Entity Detected.]
From the darkness, it erged.
A hound—but no normal beast. Its skin was like burnt leather stretched over bone. Red cracks pulsed down its sides like lava beneath its flesh. It growled, low and demonic, baring fangs too long for its jaw.
Elias didn’t move.
The System whispered:
> [First Test Initiated: Kill or Be Killed.]
The beast leapt.
Instinct took over.
Elias spun, dodging with a speed that wasn’t human. His arm shot out, fueled by sothing unnatural—and hit. The hound crashed into a tree, splitting it with a sharp crack.
> [New Ability Unlocked: Devil’s Strike—Level 1]
But the beast wasn’t dead.
It howled and charged again.
This ti, Elias didn’t dodge. He welcod it. As it lunged, he slamd both palms into the creature’s chest. Sothing dark and burning exploded from his hands.
BOOM!
The hound’s chest caved in, black fire pouring from its mouth before it dissolved into ashes.
Silence.
> [Vengeance Points Earned: 30]
Elias stood over the smoldering ash, his heart calm. Not from bravery—he simply didn’t feel fear anymore.
He looked at his hands.
"What am I becoming?" he muttered.
And the System answered:
> [You are becoming what they feared you would be.]
[Your enemies forged a monster. Now feed them to the fire.]
---
Elsewhere—Downtown Thorne City
Dr. Collins sat in a sleek black car, watching the news on his phone.
"Explosion reported at the Potenus Lab," the reporter said. "Authorities believe it to be an accident—no bodies recovered."
Collins turned to the man beside him.
"He’s dead," he said. "Has to be."
But the man—tall, pale, with sharp gray eyes—smiled without warmth.
"If he isn’t?" the man asked.
"Then he’s coming."
"Good," the man said. "Let him."
There was silence between them before the man leaned forward.
"Do you believe in devils, Doctor?"
Collins scoffed. "I believe in power."
"Sa thing," the man said, eyes glowing faintly red.
---
Back in the Forest
Elias sat beneath a tree, breathing slow.
His hands trembled now—not from fear, but from the weight of it all.
He’d killed sothing. Sothing not human. And he hadn’t hesitated.
The System whispered in his mind like a constant hum.
> [You hesitate, you die.]
[You kill, you survive.]
[Collect 1000 points. Only then will vengeance be complete.]
Elias clenched his fists. "Then let’s begin."
The wind howled through the trees like a warning.
But Elias didn’t run.
He stood up... and walked toward the next shadow.
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