The end didn't come with the roar of nuclear fire or the crack of celestial thunder.
It came with a whisper. A cold wind that smelled of rotting iron and wet ashes, seeping through cities and mountains alike.
At first, it was just a sudden drop in temperature. Scientists argued on television screens, pointing at melting glaciers and shifting currents. Then came the black rains, falling for seventy-two hours straight, dyeing rivers into thick sludge. Next, endless lightning storms carved craters into farmland, and mutated beasts crawled out of once-peaceful forests.
And finally… the abyss opened.
On that day, the sky cracked.
Massive chasms — deep, circular abysses spanning hundreds of kilometers, erupted across the continents. Within them writhed an ocean of teeth, claws, and black tentacles that looked alive yet impossibly still.
Cities were swallowed in an instant.
As if guided by some cosmic script, enormous corpses of so-called "Starfall Titans" descended from beyond the clouds, their hollow eyes staring down at the panicking masses. Their flesh twisted into mountain-sized tumors, oozing a foul light that drove millions insane.
Sunrise was delayed by a few minutes each day. Then a few hours. Until, one morning, humanity simply never saw the sun rise again.
That was two years ago.
Now, the world lay frozen under a black sky, illuminated only by flickering auroras and the soft glow of abyssal lightning crawling along the distant horizon.
Ye Ling moved silently among a forest of rusted vehicles. The once-busy highway had become an endless graveyard of twisted steel and frozen corpses. A steel pipe was strapped to his back, bent and wrapped with dirty cloth at the grip.
His breath fogged in the air as he crouched next to an overturned cargo truck, carefully prying open a half-crushed supply crate. Inside, he found half a can of nutrient paste and a cracked water purifier core.
"Better than nothing," he muttered.
[System Installation Process: 99.97%]
The notification had been stuck at this exact percentage for two years.
Two whole years of mockery.
When the apocalypse descended, some humans began awakening mysterious "Systems." Beast Tamers who commanded hordes of mutated beasts. Shadow Assassins who could vanish from sight and tear through enemies with ghostly blades. Titan Knights who fused with living armor to become walking fortresses...
Ye Ling was one of the earliest Awakeners. The first day he felt that tingling surge crawl up his spine, he thought he'd finally been chosen to rise above the collapse, to be someone who could protect, lead… or at least survive.
But fate played a cruel joke.
While other Awakeners roared as they tore through mutant hordes and claimed territories, Ye Ling saw this cursed line:
[System Installation Process: 99.97%]
Frozen at that damned process. Forever mocking him with a mere 0.03% gap.
He became a ghost among ruins, scavenging whatever scraps were left after other Awakeners ravaged an area. Old machine parts, leftover ration packs, shattered weapon modules, anything that might be bartered for a few more days of life.
Ye Ling learned to move like a rat, avoiding both beasts and humans. He had no monstrous strength, no psychic blades, no fortress-like armor. Only a pair of sharp eyes, quick legs, and an unbreakable stubbornness.
It wasn't pride that kept him alive. It was rage.
Ye Ling looked up at the night sky as he chewed on the nutrient paste. Far above, a colossal Titan corpse hung in the air like a half-deflated moon. Even from this distance, he could see the veins pulsating across its fossilized skin.
"Disgusting," he spat.
Suddenly, the ground trembled.
A low rumble echoed in the frozen air, like thunder rolling inside a deep canyon.
Ye Ling dropped the can and ducked behind a truck, his eyes scanning the distant highway curve.
A procession approached, dozens of moving lights bobbing slowly across the dark snow. Moments later, shapes emerged: armored vehicles covered in spiked plating, sleds pulled by hulking, six-legged beasts, and warriors wearing bone-and-steel hybrid armor.
He recognized the symbol painted on their lead vehicle: a black spiral with fanged edges.
The Abyssal Tamer Legion.
Ye Ling's breath caught in his throat. He'd heard stories. This faction gathered mutant beasts from abyssal rifts, turning them into living weapons. Survivors said they experimented on captured humans, fusing them into twisted chimeras.
Ye Ling's muscles tensed. Even without powers, he could read their formation, they were hunting something or someone.
He retreated slowly between frozen cars, sticking to shadows. He had no illusions of fighting or even negotiating. In this world, weakness meant becoming a blood sacrifice or experimental fodder.
But then he heard it.
A faint scream, but sharp enough to slice the frozen air.
He paused.
A Young and desperate woman's voice
Ye Ling clenched his teeth. Logic told him to run. Any confrontation meant certain death, yet his feet refused to move.
He peeked back.
About fifty meters away, between two crushed buses, he spotted her. A young woman wrapped in a shredded combat cloak, blood dripping from a wound on her thigh. Her pale face was twisted in terror as she dragged herself backward, her hands slipping on the icy ground.
Two abyssal hounds, mutated canine forms with spiny backs and jagged fangs, crept closer, their breath steaming in the cold. Behind them, a Tamer warrior watched lazily, holding a curved spear etched with abyss runes.
"Move, damn it," Ye Ling cursed at himself.
But instead of turning away, he tightened his grip on the steel pipe.
[System Installation Process: 99.97%]
He looked at the cursed line again in the corner of his vision.
"Even now… still not done."
Ye Ling's eyes narrowed. He exhaled slowly, then sprinted forward.
One of the hounds snarled and leaped at him. Ye Ling dropped to a knee, swinging the steel pipe with all his weight behind it. The impact cracked against the hound's jaw, sending it skidding sideways.
The second beast lunged, claws extended. Ye Ling rolled under it, swinging upward in a desperate arc that struck its ribs. With a wet crack, the creature howled and twisted away.
The Tamer warrior raised an eyebrow, clearly amused rather than worried. He stepped forward, spear lowering, abyssal runes beginning to glow faintly.
Ye Ling grabbed the young woman by the arm and yanked her up.
"Move if you want to live!"
She staggered, leaning heavily on him. Her wide eyes locked onto his, bright, electric blue, almost unnatural.
"A-Are you—"
"Shut up and run!"
They bolted toward the highway's edge, but the Tamer's spear lashed out, slicing through a frozen car like butter. Sparks showered across the snow.
Ye Ling shoved the woman aside, barely twisting away as the spearhead grazed his shoulder. Hot blood spurted, staining the frost.
"Pathetic," the Tamer sneered, stepping forward leisurely. "A scavenger rat wants to play hero, huh?"
The abyssal hounds regrouped, circling. The spear's runes glowed brighter, a dark purple energy gathering at its tip.
Ye Ling backed up slowly, chest heaving. His vision swam.
[System Installation Process: 99.97%]
Still stuck and useless.
He glanced at the woman. She tried to stand, her leg trembling violently. Their eyes met again.
"Looks like… this is it," Ye Ling rasped, tightening his grip on the bloody pipe.
The Tamer lunged forward, spear thrusting like a lightning bolt.
Suddenly—
[System Installation Process: 99.98%]
Ye Ling's pupils shrank.
A sudden, thunderous surge of heat exploded through his spine and skull.
[System Installation Process: 99.99%]
The Tamer's spear closed in, almost touching his forehead.
[System Installation Process: 100%]
A deafening chime echoed in his mind.
[Technologia System Installation Complete! Welcome, User Ye Ling.]
[Analyzing current environment…]
[Threat to User Detected]
[Initiating Surroundings...]
[Detected Nearby Scrap: 784 Mechanical Fragments, 41 Energy Cells, 17 Partial Processor Cores...]
[Emergency Combat Module Activation Permitted!]
In that instant, everything froze.
Ye Ling felt as if his mind exploded outward, connecting to every piece of metal, every fragment of tech, every spark of energy around him. His vision fractured into hundreds of flowing blueprints and schematics.
The Tamer's eyes widened as the spearpoint hovered a hair's breadth away.
Ye Ling's lips curved upward in a slow, icy smile.
[Activating: Battlefield Devour Protocol!]