I wake up in a body unfamiliar to my eyes but not to my soul. I can’t say whose body this is by sight alone, yet I feel completely at home within it. There is a peculiar harmony between my consciousness and this vessel, as if I was always meant to inhabit it.

I stand in the center of a grand dome. Above me, a massive screen hangs from the ceiling, its surface flickering with random symbols—ancient Greek letters that hold no immediate meaning. The computer and the book that were once here are gone, their absence adding to the unsettling silence that fills the space.

“Again?” I mutter to myself, exhaling deeply, when suddenly my entire body begins to glow. A blinding light envelops me, lifting me off the ground. It is not a weightless feeling but something more profound, as though I am being elevated by the sheer force of my own existence. To my surprise, this body feels more natural than any form I’ve inhabited before—more than my pre-system self, my system-modified body, or even my post-system one.

“You have become a perfect being,” declares a voice, its tone deep and resonant, echoing through the dome. “You are now powerful enough to kill God.”

As the glow subsides, I land gently back on the ground. My mind races, not with panic but with calm calculation. I flex my hands, marveling at the sheer energy coursing through them.

“So, this is the so-called Unholy-Undemonic stage,” I say aloud, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Forget that—the so-called Perfect Being, the one who stands at the threshold of divinity, ready to challenge and destroy God.”

There’s no spoken reply, but I feel a telepathic confirmation—an impression, a silent nod reverberating through my mind.

“And yet,” I continue, my tone sharpening, “I don’t sense that raw, primal power. The kind that lingers in the Void, where I clawed my way back from. You—you’re not the source, are you? You’re just an avatar, some kind of projection.”

Again, the telepathic nod.

“Kool,” I say, the word slipping out with a nonchalance that belies the gravity of the situation. “I guess. So, what’s the catch? What’s my duty now that I’ve been granted these... powers?”

“For everything,” the voice intones, its weight pressing down on me like a stormcloud, “your duty is the destruction of this damned system.”

I pause, letting the words sink in. Destruction. The very thing I’ve been craving since the system betrayed me. I piece together the implications of the voice’s demand, drawing on the fragmented truths I’ve gathered through pain, loss, and rage.

“You mean I’m supposed to travel from planet to planet, destroy their representatives, and devour their cores? That’s your grand design, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” the voice replies, cold and unfeeling.

“And what, exactly, will that accomplish?”

“Your body, though perfect, is still in its infancy,” the voice explains. “Devouring planetary cores will accelerate your evolution. Without the system’s assistance, this process would take eons—untold millennia. Hate the system all you want, but it simplified your path. It gave you tools, if only you had played by its rules.”

“I understand,” I say simply. My tone betrays no emotion, though my mind churns with conflicting thoughts. This body, this existence, this purpose—it all feels predestined.

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I scan the room, searching for an exit.

“Go that way,” the voice commands, and a small hologram materializes, pointing the way forward.

“Don’t forget to take this planet’s core on your way out,” it adds. “To access it, you must defeat its representative. A very dear friend of yours, in fact.”

The voice’s tone shifts, carrying an almost mocking edge. The once-neutral system voice now feels distinctly snarky, as though relishing my impending encounter.

I leave the dome, retrieving the core from a chamber at the planet’s center. Its pulsating energy draws my attention, and as I claim it, the entire planet trembles.

Locking onto the representative’s energy signature—a signature all too familiar—I set off at full speed. The journey takes mere seconds, my perfect form slicing through space like a blade. I arrive at the castle, its oppressive architecture looming over the scarred landscape.

I glance toward the pit where my journey nearly ended. It is filled now with a massive meteor, its bulk matching the crater but not its unfathomable depth.

“Who are you, and how did you get in here?” bark a few guards as they approach me, their weapons drawn.

I summon [Omnipotent], shaping it into a spear. With a swift motion, I strike one guard, then another, and another. Their bodies crumple like puppets with their strings cut. I realize with grim satisfaction that I can summon infinite copies of [Omnipotent]. The only remnant of the system left within me, it is now nothing more than a detached tool—obedient to my will alone.

The being I seek is deep within the castle. With a flick of my hand, I distort the space around him, forcing him to appear before me.

Martin materializes, utterly startled—and completely naked.

Realizing his predicament, he scrambles to summon clothes, his face a mixture of shock and disbelief.

“You’re still alive?” he stammers, his voice trembling. “How is this possible? We have the database—you don’t exist anymore. Is this some kind of joke, Lucas?”

He steps closer, hesitantly reaching out to confirm that I am real.

Before he can touch me, I summon a spear and drive it through his right hand, pinning him to the wall.

“AAAAA!” His scream tears through the air, raw and primal.

“Brilliant,” I say, my voice filled with dark amusement. “I can finally hurt you. Last time we fought, we both knew we couldn’t truly damage each other. That immortality God granted you? That’s what made you cocky—not the crystal you used to kill me.”

Martin doesn’t respond, too consumed by his pain. His screams grow louder, filling the castle. I laugh, savoring his suffering.

Others rush to stop me—guards, knights, even the King himself. None of them last long. They become skewered on my spears, their lifeless bodies piling up around me.

Eventually, Martin calms. His bloodshot eyes meet mine, blazing with rage.

“You won’t leave this place alive,” he spits, his voice trembling with fury.

I appear before him in an instant, startling him.

“Are you sure about that?” I taunt, laughing as I spit in his face.

Martin’s desperation peaks. He fires his weapon—a Dumb Shot—and smirks.

“Bitch, I have infinite activations,” he sneers, unleashing a storm of spatial bullets.

I dodge them with ease. One strikes me, lodging in my arm before vanishing, fusing seamlessly with my perfect body.

“Fuck you,” Martin curses, pulling something from his storage and consuming it. His power surges to unfathomable levels.

He shatters the spear embedded in his arm, its fragments transforming into hovering bullets.

“Oh, you’ve made a grave mistake,” he snarls, summoning an arsenal of weapons from countless portals. The castle erupts in chaos as bullets rain down, tearing apart the planet itself.

Infinite [Omnipotent] shields me, but I cannot counterattack. I stand still, blocking the onslaught, and think: What am I missing?

Then it hits me. Space bends to my will. Time is mine to command. I don’t need anything else.

With a blink, I hold Martin by the neck. His weapons bend away from me, unable to touch my form.

“You’re nothing to me anymore,” I declare. Martin struggles, a worm in my grasp.

I summon a spear and drive it through his neck, throwing his body across the planet for all to see.

The core floats above, its energy cascading into the atmosphere. A dome shatters, revealing the true sky for the first time. A beam of light pours from the core into me.

“This is real power,” whispers a voice as I turn my gaze to the next planet. The hunt continues.