The cold, emotionless mechanical voice echoed at exactly 12:00 PM. It didn't come from speakers, televisions, or smartphones; rather, it exploded directly within the minds of every individual, simultaneously halting all human routines on Planet Earth.
From the hustle and bustle of Tokyo's crowded Shibuya crossing and the noisy trading floor of Wall Street in New York to the most remote countryside, time seemed to freeze. Birds stopped flapping their wings in mid-air, and the roar of car engines abruptly fell silent.
[Attention to all humanity on Planet Earth.]
[The Universal Survival Protocol has been activated. The initial screening phase has begun. Valid participant age: 16 to 60 years old.]
[Number of eligible participants: 8,420,119,341 souls.]
[Your home planet has reached its spiritual energy limit. Welcome to the "Game of Sovereigns." All of you will be teleported to the Endless Continent. There, each of you will become a 'Lord.' Build your territories, recruit armies, repel invasions, and survive.]
[Remember, death on the Endless Continent is absolute death. May Supreme Luck be with you all.]
Before a single human had the chance to scream, struggle, or question their sanity, a flash of blue light swallowed the entire world. Earth, in the blink of an eye, fell dead silent, abandoned by billions of its inhabitants in their prime.
Orion Vance felt his stomach churn, as if he had just been thrown into a washing machine spinning at the speed of light. When he finally regained his balance and opened his eyes, the familiar sight of his cramped apartment had vanished, replaced by a scene that made his hair stand on end.
He stood in the middle of a massive primeval forest. The surrounding trees were nothing like those on Earth; their trunks were pitch-black, as thick as the pillars of an ancient temple, and towered dozens of meters into the air, blotting out the sunlight and leaving behind a chilling gloom.
The air felt incredibly thick, filled with the scent of wet earth, moss, and something that smelled faintly of rusted blood. From a distance, Orion could hear the bone-chilling roars of wild beasts—roars that didn't sound like lions or tigers, but something much larger and far more savage.
"So... this isn't a dream," Orion muttered, his voice hoarse.
He clutched his chest, feeling his heart racing wildly. Orion was an ordinary young man who worked as a data analyst, accustomed to logic and numbers. However, the current situation tore apart every shred of rationality he knew.
He shifted his gaze and realized that he wasn't completely defenseless in the wild. He was standing inside a transparent dome of light that encompassed a circular area with a radius of about fifty meters.
Right in the center of that protective dome was an incredibly dilapidated wooden shack. It looked as if it would collapse from a strong gust of wind. Floating in front of the wooden shack was a diamond-shaped crystal the size of an adult's fist. The crystal emitted a faint white glow, pulsing slowly in rhythm with a heartbeat.
Orion stepped slowly toward the crystal. The moment his fingers touched its cold surface, a transparent blue holographic screen suddenly materialized in front of his eyes.
[Ding!] [Welcome, Lord Orion Vance. You have successfully connected with your Territory Core.]
[Current Territory Level: Level 0 (Shack)] [Status: Under Novice Protection Period.]
The mechanical voice in his head resounded once more, this time providing a more detailed explanation to all the Lords on the Endless Continent.
[System Notification: Each Lord has been granted an Initial Territory and a Territory Core. The Territory Core is your lifeblood. If the Territory Core is destroyed, you will be eliminated (Dead). If you die, the Territory Core will be destroyed.]
[System Notification: You are currently under the Novice Protection Dome. For the next 7 days, no monsters or foreign entities can penetrate this dome. Use these 7 days to gather resources, fortify your territory, and recruit troops.]
[System Notification: After 7 days, the Protection Dome will disappear, and the First 'Beast Tide' will attack your territory. Those who fail to defend will be erased from existence.]
Orion gulped. Seven days. He only had seven days to prepare for a monster army in a world he knew absolutely nothing about.
He quickly examined the holographic interface in front of him. There were several menus: [Personal Status], [Territory Status], [Buildings], [Troops], [Chat Channel], and [Auction].
His instincts as an analyst prompted him to immediately open the [Chat Channel]. He needed to know if this was only happening to him or to everyone else.
Sure enough, the interface was divided into the [World Channel] and the [Regional Channel]. Since the [World Channel] required a 'World Megaphone' item to send messages, Orion observed the [Regional Channel], which accommodated 10,000 Lords in his surrounding area.
Messages were scrolling at an insane speed, making them almost impossible to read.
"Help! Where am I?! There's a giant two-headed wolf outside my protection dome!" "Is this a TV prank show? Get me out of here! I'm the CEO of a multinational company, I'll sue all of you!" "Damn it, what kind of shack is this? Even my dog's kennel back on Earth was way better!" "Someone help me, I'm all alone and I'm so scared..." "Screw all of you, I see a dragon! A REAL FREAKING DRAGON FLYING OVER THE FOREST!"
Panic. Despair. Ignorance. The chat channel was overflowing with a negative aura that could shatter a person's mentality. Orion immediately closed the chat. Reading other people's panic wouldn't help him survive.
[Ding! The Chat Channel has been accessed. The introduction phase is over.]
[As a reward for humanity's arrival on the Endless Continent, every Lord has one chance to awaken an Innate Talent. This Talent will become your absolute foundation for survival.]
[Do you wish to draw your Innate Talent now?]
Orion's heart pounded heavily. In the strategy games or fantasy novels he used to read, a 'Talent' was the ultimate deciding factor. Whether you became cannon fodder or a king all depended on this draw.
The regional channel he had just closed suddenly popped up golden notifications at the edge of his vision. Several Lords had apparently drawn their talents and were showing them off.
"Hahaha! I got a Silver-Tier Talent: [Swift Woodcutter]! My wood-gathering speed is increased by 200%!" "Damn it, I only got a Normal-Tier: [Healthy Body]..." "Move aside peasants, I got a Gold-Tier Talent! [Flame Caller]! I can shoot fireballs from my hands! I'm going to rule this forest!"
Based on the brief discussions, Orion deduced that the Rarity Tiers ranged sequentially from Normal (White), Black Iron (Black), Bronze, Silver, Gold, and so on. Getting a Gold tier right from the start already made someone an elite among tens of thousands of people.
Orion took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and pressed the [Yes] button on the holographic screen.
In front of him, a giant roulette wheel made of light materialized. The wheel spun at a terrifying speed. Colors flashed by; white, black, bronze, silver, gold, all the way to purple (Epic) and orange (Legendary).
However, the wheel didn't stop. Its speed grew so frantic that the colors began to blur together. Suddenly, the space around Orion seemed to crack. Golden and blood-red lightning struck from the void, smashing the roulette wheel into millions of glowing fragments!
Orion staggered backward, shielding his face from the blinding explosion of light.
When the light faded, there was no gold or orange color. What remained floating in front of Orion was a glowing cube radiating a golden light of absolute purity, as if it were forged from the essence of the stars themselves. This light felt... ancient, sacred, and absolute.
[Warning! Anomaly detected!] [Warning! The world's laws of probability have been breached!]
[Congratulations! You have awakened an 'Origin-Grade' (Divine Gold) Innate Talent—A Talent that surpasses the Mythic tier and is the only one of its kind in the universe!]
[Innate Talent: The Forge of Genesis] [Grade: Origin-Grade (Divine Gold)] [Effect: Activates the 'Absolute Synthesis' ability. You can fuse two or more identical objects, materials, buildings, or living units to produce a single new entity with a higher Rarity and Quality. The synthesis success rate is 100%. There are no level restrictions, no risk of failure, and it completely ignores the laws of physics and system balance.]
Orion's eyes widened so much they almost popped out of their sockets. His mouth hung slightly open as he read the talent description over and over again. As an analyst, his brain rapidly processed the mathematical implications of this ability.
"Absolute Synthesis... 100% success rate..." Orion muttered softly, his voice trembling not from fear, but from an overwhelming ecstasy.
In normal games, the synthesis or crafting feature always had an agonizing 'Success Rate' to torture players. Fusing a rare item might only have a 10% or 5% chance of success, and if it failed, the item would be destroyed. However, his talent was written in crystal clear terms: 100% success rate. Zero risk of failure.
This was no longer just an advantage; this was a world-breaking cheat. As long as he had enough basic resources, he could synthesize an ordinary rock into a divine artifact, or a lowly foot soldier into a god of war!
To test his theory, Orion turned around and picked up two fist-sized river stones lying on the ground, right in front of his shack. The two stones were identical, ordinary gray rocks that could be found anywhere.
He held the two stones in his palms and focused his mind on his talent.
Synthesis.
Instantly, a small golden energy cube appeared between his palms. The two gray stones were sucked into the cube, swirling briefly in a blinding light before merging. A second later, the light subsided.
Resting on Orion's palm was now a completely new stone. Its color was no longer a dull gray, but a glossy black with a significantly heavier density.
[Synthesis Successful!] [2x Normal Stone (Grade: Normal/White) -> 1x Black Iron Stone (Grade: Black Iron)] [Description: A construction material as hard as light steel. Excellent for building initial defensive walls.]
Orion gripped the black iron stone tightly. He looked outside his protective dome, staring into the dark primeval forest infested with deadly monsters. Just moments ago, that forest seemed like a hellscape ready to swallow him alive.
But now? That dark forest, this Endless Continent, and even this entire Game of Sovereigns... in Orion's eyes, everything looked like an infinite resource mine waiting to be harvested and synthesized.
The corners of Orion's lips curled up, forming a cold, calculating smirk.
"Seven days," he whispered toward the forest. "Let's see how much of this world I can synthesize before you come to tear me apart."
A new era had just begun, and the Synthesis Lord had awakened.