**Chapter 1: The Zeroth Variable**
The sensation of death was heavy, like sinking into a frozen ocean.
Then, in a single heartbeat, the ice shattered.
Zayne snapped his eyes open. He didn't gasp. He didn't flail. He simply sat up, his chest heaving once to expel the phantom smoke of a burning world, and then his breathing went silent.
White walls. No door. The hum of a fluorescent light that had no source.
"The Waiting Room," Zayne murmured, his voice raspy.
He looked down at his hands. They were unscarred. Pale. The calluses from wielding the World-Severing Blade were gone, replaced by the soft skin of a student who spent too much time holding a pen.
He clenched his fist. The strength was pathetic, but the connection was there. He was alive. He was back.
[Initializing Candidate Selection...]
[Welcome to the Celestial Nexus.]
[Scanning Soul Signature...]
Golden text materialized in the air, glowing with a divine indifference. Zayne stared at it with dead, calm eyes. He had seen this text a lifetime ago, back when he was a frightened boy praying for salvation.
Now, he only felt a cold calculation.
"Status," he commanded.
The air shimmered.
[Name: Zayne]
[Race: Human]
[Rank: Mortal (F)]
[Strength: 4]
[Agility: 5]
[Stamina: 4]
[Mana: 0]
[Luck: 1]
[Traits: None]
Pathetic. The average adult male had a 5 in all stats. He was sub-par. In his previous life, this weakness had forced him to crawl through mud and blood just to survive the first day.
"Not this time," Zayne whispered.
He closed his eyes, diving deep into the recesses of his own soul. He wasn't looking for mana. He was looking for the anomaly—the fragment of the Void he had swallowed right before the End.
"Unlock."
*Bzzt.*
The golden system window flickered. Static noise, like a detuned radio, filled the room. The gold turned a deep, bruising violet.
[Warning: Unknown energy signature detected.]
[Warning: Soul Capacity exceeding limits.]
[ integrating... ]
[Success.]
[New Bloodline Acquired: Void Sovereign (Mythical)]
Zayne exhaled, a small smile touching his lips. It wasn't a smile of joy; it was the look of a chess player who just saw mate in thirty moves.
The *Void Sovereign*. It didn't give him fireballs or super strength. Not yet. But it gave him something far more dangerous.
*Absolute Analysis.*
[Tutorial commencing in 10 seconds.]
[Objective: Survive the First Wave.]
[Location: The Barren Expanse.]
The walls began to dissolve into digital dust.
Zayne stood up. He cracked his neck, left then right. He knew the layout of the tutorial. He knew the monsters. He knew that in exactly three minutes, ninety percent of the people spawning with him would be dead.
The world shifted.
The sterile smell of the white room was replaced by the stench of sulfur and dry rot. Zayne's boots hit cracked, parched earth.
A purple sky stretched overhead, devoid of stars.
"Where... where is this?"
"Did we get kidnapped?"
"Mom?"
Voices erupted around him. Hundreds of people—students, office workers, mechanics—materialized in the clearing. Panic was immediate. It spread like a virus, louder and more dangerous than any beast.
Zayne ignored them. He didn't have time to play leader. He spun on his heel, facing East.
A kilometer away, a cloud of dust was rising.
*Iron-Tooth Rats. Two hundred of them.*
"Hey! You!" A large man in a gym shirt grabbed Zayne's shoulder. "You look like you know something. Where the hell are we?"
Zayne glanced at the hand on his shoulder, then at the man's eyes.
"Let go," Zayne said. His voice was soft, but the temperature in the air seemed to drop.
The man flinched, pulling his hand back instinctively. "I just—"
"If you want to live, climb the rocks," Zayne said, pointing to a jagged cliff face fifty meters away. "Don't fight on the ground."
"What? Why?"
Zayne didn't answer. He was already moving.
He wasn't running away; he was repositioning. He sprinted toward a pile of debris near the cliff—the ruins of an ancient watchtower. His Agility was only 5, but his form was perfect. No wasted movement. Every step propelled him forward with maximum efficiency.
*Screech!*
The sound tore through the air. The confusion in the clearing turned to terror.
The rats had arrived.
They were the size of wolves, covered in matted grey fur, their teeth long enough to puncture steel. They slammed into the crowd of confused humans like a tidal wave.
Screams. Blood. Chaos.
Zayne reached the ruins. He didn't look back at the carnage. He couldn't save them all, and trying would only get him killed. He scrambled up a broken pillar, reaching a vantage point three meters off the ground.
His eyes scanned the swarm. The violet hue of the *Void Sovereign* flickered deep in his irises.
*Information processing...*
*Target locked.*
In the center of the rat swarm, one beast stood out. It was larger, with a streak of crimson fur down its spine. It wasn't attacking; it was watching.
* The Alpha.*
If the Alpha lived, the pack would fight with coordination. If the Alpha died, the pack would break into a frenzy, giving the humans a chance to fight back.
Zayne crouched. He picked up a jagged piece of rebar from the rubble. It was heavy, rusted, and unbalanced.
[Item: Rusted Iron Bar (Common)]
[Attack Power: 2-4]
"Garbage," Zayne muttered.
But it was enough.
He adjusted his grip. He waited. He needed the Alpha to roar.
Down below, the Alpha reared up on its hind legs, opening its jaws to issue a command to the flank.
*Now.*
Zayne threw the rebar.
He didn't throw it like a baseball; he threw it like a spear, putting his entire body weight behind the motion.
The metal bar hissed through the air.
*Thwack.*
A wet, crunching sound echoed over the screams. The rebar struck the Alpha directly in the open mouth, punching through the soft palate and severing the brain stem.
The beast dropped like a puppet with cut strings.
[Critical Hit!]
[You have slain the Level 3 Iron-Tooth Alpha.]
[Achievement Unlocked: The First Head.]
[Reward: +5 All Stats.]
[Level Up!]
Power flooded Zayne's veins. The lethargy of his weak body evaporated.
Below, the rats screeched in confusion. The coordinated attack collapsed. The humans, realizing the monsters were hesitating, began to fight back with stones and fists.
Zayne didn't stay to watch. He had done his part. He had tipped the scales. Now, they had to survive on their own.
He turned away from the battlefield, facing the cliff wall. Hidden behind a cluster of dead vines was a small, dark fissure in the rock. A cave entrance.
Most people would think it was a shelter. Zayne knew better.
"The Hidden Piece," he whispered.
In the tutorial, there was always a second path. A harder path.
He checked his timer. *One minute, forty seconds elapsed.*
Perfect.
Zayne stepped into the darkness of the cave. The air grew colder, and a low, rhythmic breathing echoed from the depths—something far larger than a rat.
Zayne grinned.
"Time to grind."