Shreyash didn't hesitate.
While the world outside was collapsing into chaos, while screams echoed through cities and blood soaked the streets, he made a decision that felt almost instinctive.
If I'm looking for answers… they won't be outside.
He turned toward the portal—the same tear in reality from which the monsters had emerged—and stepped into it.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the System reacted.
> [World Connector Traversal Detected]
[First Traversal Reward Granted]
[Ability Unlocked: World Connector Access]
Information poured into his mind.
These portals were known as World Connectors—fractured pathways linking ruined or dying worlds to others. As the first human to voluntarily traverse one, Shreyash was granted a privilege no one else possessed.
He could now enter and exit World Connectors at will, teleporting between connected worlds and returning to his origin point—at least, as long as his level and endurance allowed it.
The reward barely registered.
Because the world around him was already screaming.
The World of Ruined Lightning
The sky above was shattered.
Endless storm clouds churned violently, ripped apart by constant arcs of black lightning that struck the ground without sound. The land was cracked and burned, reduced to floating fragments of scorched earth suspended in the air as if gravity itself had failed.
This was a world that had almost ended.
The System named it quietly.
> [World Identified: Ruined Lightning World]
This world had been devastated by World Void Monsters—entities born from collapse itself. They had no consciousness. No emotions. No instincts beyond a single, absolute directive:
Destroy. Absorb. Erase.
They consumed worlds the way fire consumed oxygen.
And one of them noticed him.
A creature crawled out from the shattered ground, its body formed of crackling lightning and broken obsidian flesh. Electricity surged through its limbs, tearing chunks of land apart with every movement.
A Lightning Beast.
It roared—not from rage, but from pure existential impulse—and lunged at him.
Shreyash didn't summon Supreme Qi.
He didn't need to.
He reached out.
And pulled.
The space between them folded violently as the creature was dragged toward him against its own momentum. The force wasn't physical—it was absolute. The beast shrieked as its body twisted unnaturally, lightning tearing away from it as if stripped by an unseen hand.
Shreyash grabbed it mid-air and slammed it into the ground.
The impact shattered the earth.
The creature tried to retaliate, lightning exploding outward—but Shreyash felt it clearly now.
His ability did not require Supreme Qi.
No cost.
No channeling.
No exhaustion.
Only will.
He tightened his grip and pulled inward.
The beast collapsed into itself, its core imploding as lightning and matter were crushed together. With a final violent surge, the creature disintegrated, leaving behind scorched fragments and fading energy.
Silence returned to the broken world.
> [Enemy Killed]
[Level Up!]
But another prompt appeared immediately—one that made his breath hitch.
> [Fusion Available]
He didn't hesitate.
He accepted.
The moment fusion began, the remains of the Lightning Beast dissolved into streams of energy, essence, and data, flooding into his body. It wasn't painful—it was consuming. He felt everything being taken.
Not just power.
Not just energy.
Everything.
Stats. Attributes. Residual essence.
Nothing was wasted.
The System recalculated.
Health : 150 / 150 + 200 (Fused) = 300
Strength : 70 + 80 = 150
Agility : 65 + 75 = 140
Stamina : 65 + 75 = 140
S. Qi : 80 + 90 = 170
His level remained unchanged—but his foundation had exploded.
Shreyash froze.
This wasn't normal progression.
This was absorption without limits.
A cheat.
A loophole.
A golden finger that ignored balance entirely.
He understood then.
Anyone else needed years, ranks, and impossible battles to grow stronger.
He only needed to kill.
And absorb.
The realization thrilled him.
And terrified him.
As the storm raged above and black lightning tore the sky apart, Shreyash's thoughts drifted back to Earth.
To his parents.
To Megha.
To Ojas.
To Badri.
To everyone he had left behind in a world now drowning in blood.
His fists clenched.
I can grow stronger here…
But what if I'm already too late?
The ruined lightning crackled around him as the thought settled heavily in his chest.
This world was dying.
But his own world—
might already be dead.
And he wasn't there to stop it.