Greg closed the door slowly, leaning back against it as he looked down at the box, feeling a mix of exhilaration and wariness pulse through him. The sleek black cylinder with its four grey sides seemed to absorb the light around it, a surreal object that felt almost out of place in his apartment. The Chaos Nexus, he thought, turning it over in his hands. A device designed specifically for a game he’d spent countless hours on—and it was supposedly going to help him uncover the secrets behind The Key of the Draconic Abyss.
With a quick motion, he placed the box on his desk and slid off the lid. Inside, neatly organized in sleek compartments, were the promised contents. The laptop sat like a jewel in its padded casing, black with faint patterns that looked almost like ancient runes shimmering faintly in the dim light. The headset was next, ergonomic and polished, a design so futuristic it could’ve been something straight out of a sci-fi film. But what drew his attention was the Chaos Nexus itself—a device that looked both elegant and ominous, its smooth, cylindrical shape broken only by the four grey panels that seemed to hum softly under his fingertips.
“Alright, Nexus,” he muttered, feeling an odd sense of anticipation building as he powered up the laptop and plugged in the device. The startup screen came to life in a flare of colors, the familiar Chaos Blade logo spinning into view as the new interface downloaded automatically. Greg adjusted his chair, the headset sliding snugly over his ears as he settled into the game. But as the game loaded, a message flashed across the screen.
WELCOME TO THE CHAOS NEXUS. PLEASE FOLLOW THE ONBOARDING STEPS CAREFULLY TO UNLOCK ENHANCED ACCESS.
Greg’s fingers tapped through the prompts, reading each instruction carefully. The process seemed straightforward—link his account, authenticate his profile as GrChaosLegion, and agree to a set of terms that he barely skimmed over. But as he reached the end of the setup, the screen paused, and another prompt appeared.
THE KEY OF THE DRACONIC ABYSS AWAITS. CALIBRATION IN PROGRESS.
The message blinked a few times, and then the screen began to ripple, almost like the game itself was becoming unstable. A low hum emanated from the Nexus, vibrating through his desk, and for a second, Greg felt a strange sensation—a tingling, as if the device were reaching out, somehow syncing with him on a level beyond the game. He shook it off, chalking it up to excitement and fatigue from the grind.
The screen flickered, then stabilized, and when it returned, he was looking at something completely different: a dark, vast space, swirling with energy and unfamiliar icons lining the sides of his HUD. There was something otherworldly about it as if he’d stumbled into a part of Chaos Blade not meant for regular players. And then, a single prompt materialized at the center of the screen:
TASK 1: AWAKEN THE FLAME MAGE.
Greg frowned, his fingers instinctively clicking on the Flame Mage’s profile again. The character, with his basic robes and unassuming stance, seemed to stare back at him, almost like he was aware of the scrutiny. Greg scanned through the stats, but nothing had changed since the last run. No boosts, no new skills. Just the same underwhelming toolkit that had frustrated him to no end.
“Awaken the Flame Mage, huh?” Greg muttered, skeptical. “That’s rich. How the hell am I supposed to ‘awaken’ an R-rank character?”
But as if in response to his frustration, a new option appeared on the character’s screen—a dim, pulsing icon labeled RESONANCE.
Greg Intrigued thought resonance, which is not a part of the normal characters. Clicking on it made a paragraph of text appear.
Resonance is the state where after continued use of a character. The closer to max a character is the stronger the effects of Resonance. Characters with extremely strong resonance with a streamer influence the progress of the game. The Fire Mage is a character that resonance will influence greatly.
Stolen novel; please report.
Rewards for Completion
* new event quest
* Transcendence Cube
* Materials to craft Monarch Silver butterfly Artifact
“What. Wait What Event Quest Transcendence Cube Monarch Butterfly? What is this?
None of these materials exist in Eternal Chaos War. I opened a new tab on the Rewards but couldn't find anything of substance. There were a few Teddit articles about bosses I'm the game but nothing alluding to the purpose.
Clicking back on the Creator Site he was met with a message to log in to the game on the Laptop. But to do that he is needed to exit the game on the tablet.
Greg Rushing to the Tablet was met with the team still auto-farming the dungeon and quickly spotted the fire Mage but he was completely different. First, he was now level 12, and instead of the plain robes, he now had a more evolved armored pair of robes.
“ How did it evolve? The cap for Rares is level 30 and units can not just evolve themselves. I was gone for like 5 minutes. How did he level up 40 times? When a unit reaches max level the auto battle automatically ends. How did it continue?”
The chaos Nexus knocked me out of my Trance it's humming growing louder as if beckoning him. I quickly closed out of the game and logged in on the laptop.
As soon as the game a notification landed in my mail. Clicking on the red exclamation mark took me to an event page listing all the quests. The rewards button for the max resonance of the character now had the same exclamation mark clicking on it led me to a black screen.
In the black screen I could hear faint tapping sounds so I turned up the volume and plugged in my headset and the sound became crystal clear. Looking around my room to make sure I was alone because of the sound of footsteps. Loud unhurried footsteps. The footsteps got closer signaling the thing getting closer until I could see a black outline on the screen.
The footsteps continued until the thing was right in front of the screen. I was frozen as the thing's eyes glowed red and a red light picked up surrounding the figure. The figure became visible as the I felt the very air around me began to heat up.
I stared at the laptop, my jaw tightening in shock. I could barely process what I was seeing. My Fire Mage—an R-rank, useless in most cases, was now standing there decked out in some unknown set of armor, practically radiating power, and leveled up past what should’ve been possible. The character’s previously pathetic robe had been replaced with black-and-crimson armor, trimmed with ember-like details that seemed to glow as if they were alive. In place of his usual, lackluster stance, the mage stood tall and confident, fire dancing in his eyes.
“This is insane,” I murmured, flipping back to my close-out but the laptop refused to exit out. State of the Art my foot it's broken and overheating.
The mage looked directly at me and smiled.
“ Where are you going you haven't checked my stats yet.”
The laptop opened a new tab similar to the testing stage in Chaos War. A open field appeared on the screen, its horizon stretching into an ominous, fiery landscape with shadows flickering in the distance. I felt a chill despite the oppressive heat radiating from the laptop—an odd juxtaposition that left me unnerved. It was like the character had somehow transcended the boundaries of the game, entering a realm that straddled the line between digital and tangible.
The Flame Mage continued to gaze at me, his crimson eyes alive with a mischievous glint. He tilted his head slightly, and his smile widened, taking on an almost predatory edge. A menu blinked to life, displaying his stats in a way I’d never seen before. Each stat was highlighted with strange symbols around it—arcane glyphs that seemed to move, reshaping themselves with each passing second.
Name: Flame King Demonic Host
Level: 70
Rarity (Natural UR)
Awakening(Perfect)
Unique?
Skill 1 Volcanic End
Effect:?
Skill 2 Hell Fire
Effect:?
Ultimate?
Skill: ?????
“Natural UR? What the hell…” I muttered, my hand hovering over the keyboard, fingers itching to dig deeper. This wasn’t in any patch notes. I’d read them religiously, trying to find ways to maximize his potential as a free-to-play character. Yet here he was, completely transformed, and far more powerful than anything I could have ever dreamed. I’d been grinding him endlessly, hoping he’d at least become halfway usable in a fire dungeon. But this—this was something else.
“ Well I have to go now but I will leave you with a gift. A flash of fire and the Mage was gone the room flushed back into darkness besides symbols carved into the floor with fire.
“352ME R32B66. What is that a code? What am I supposed to do with it?
Now the mage is gone I was able to click back on the game but I very aware it wasn't a smart idea. Clicking on the Redemption Code Bar and typing in lead to a dead end. So I tried looking through the event and saw a redemption code their but it also lead to a dead end.
Then I heard ringing from my phone. So I started Searching for it. The call was long over before I got to. I saw it was a scam number I was going to click off until I saw the letters under the number key. I thought why not and started inputting the code. It took a while but I eventually got something that made some sense.
“ 352ME R32B66= Flame Reborn. Inputting that code gave me something to work with.