Lee Hwan's hands felt colder than usual, even with the Seoul summer sweltering just outside his grimy rooftop room. There wasn't any glow, no shimmering aura or divine light to signal that something profound had just happened. But something had. He could feel it beneath his skin, humming quietly, like the low throb of an overloaded circuit. His fingers trembled slightly as he reached up and touched the side of his VR headset, breathing unevenly. The world of Systemverse had always been vast, cruel, and annoyingly pay-to-win, but until now, it had at least followed the rules.
Not anymore.
He yanked open the menu, expecting lag or a standard error message. What he saw instead made him freeze.
SYSTEM OVERRIDE… New system initializing… [SSS-RANK: SYSTEM DEVOURER] Activated Condition Met: [Player Killed] Target: Zerack SYSTEM CLAIMED: [Zerack's Lightning Core], [Combat Boost Lv.3], [Shock Blade Skill Tree]
It was a cascade of impossible words. A system—no, the system—had changed. And not like when a player leveled up or unlocked some paid DLC trash. This felt deeper. Fundamental. The foundation of Systemverse didn't just get shaken—it got rewritten.
"...He's dead?" he muttered aloud, still staring blankly at the blue holographic message.
He hadn't expected it to go this far. Sure, he threw a rock. A literal rock. Who even uses rocks in a PvP battle? But something about it... something about that one desperate throw had shattered the status quo.
He swiped through his notifications. They were endless. Red, flashing, and more aggressive than they had any right to be. Somewhere in the feed, one particular update made his gut twist.
[Zerack has been permanently removed from the game. Cause of death: System Failure]
Removed. Not banned. Not temp-locked. Removed. Like deleted. Like unplugged. Like whoever Zerack was, in this world or the other, he was gone now.
Hwan's legs gave out, and he landed hard on a storage crate in the spawn alley. His breaths came in slow, uneven drags. The dusty alley smelled like rust and low-level potion fumes. Nobody else was around, which helped. He needed to think. Fast.
So… My system activates when someone dies. Not just anyone—someone with a system. And I take it. All of it.
He looked at his hands again. They weren't glowing. They weren't trembling anymore, either.
And yet, he felt different. Sharper. Cleaner. Like something inside him had been upgraded while the rest of the world blinked and missed it.
New Passive Skill Unlocked: [Adaptation Efficiency Lv.1]
Just like that, his senses became more... precise. He could hear a distant NPC baker throwing out stale bread like it was happening two feet away. His balance recalibrated. His inventory opened 0.3 seconds faster than usual. It wasn't just power—it was optimization. Efficiency at the code level.
So that's how it starts.
His mind flashed back to the duel—Zerack's smug face, his paid armor, his overhyped system.
And how all that power meant nothing once a single stone disrupted the rhythm.
And now, Zerack's legacy? His core system? It belonged to Hwan. Digested. Rewritten.
And the kicker? Zerack had paid hundreds of dollars for it.
Hwan hadn't spent a cent.
He wasn't just playing the game anymore.
He was breaking it.
The next morning, sunlight slipped through the grime on his window like it was ashamed to be there. Hwan sat cross-legged on his floor, a blanket tossed over his legs and three empty ramen cups scattered near his keyboard. He hadn't slept. Not even a nap. His eyes were bloodshot, but they didn't blink often. He'd spent all night watching the duel replay. Again and again.
Every frame. Every glitch. Every detail.
The exact moment Zerack's system stuttered. The tiny delay before the combat HUD crashed. The unnatural ripple that ran through the air when the rock hit.
It wasn't a bug.
It was a trigger.
Somehow, that moment—a low-tier player with zero wins, using an unregistered item in an unofficial duel—had activated a hidden mechanic.
My system only activates if the other player dies. Like, really dies. But the devs said no permadeath except in lore modes.
He scrolled forums. Hacked together subreddits. Player theory channels. Nothing. Not a whisper of anything like what he experienced. Systems could be upgraded, evolved, combined—but not devoured. No one had reported anything remotely similar.
Which means one thing.
I'm the only one.
Back inside Systemverse, the world moved on like it always did. Players traded items, chased dailies, fought over rare spawn timers. But Hwan felt like he was in a different dimension. The world around him shimmered. Not visibly—but in his mind.
He could see outlines. Faint traces. Like digital halos around other players.
Player: BeastRend99 [Beast Core Lv.4 - A Rank]
Player: QueenSniperXO [Headshot Matrix Passive - B Rank]
And on and on. Systems floated around them, visible only to him. An endless buffet.
But there was a catch.
They had to die. He couldn't just fight them. Couldn't just out-duel them. He had to be there when they died. Or cause their death directly.
So he needed a battlefield.
Somewhere players didn't just duel—they perished.
He found it buried under the daily event announcements.
[Crimson Trial Arena - Hardcore PvP Mode] Death Penalty: Active Reward: High-Tier Loot, System Upgrade Tokens, Reputation Bonuses
Perfect.
He queued without hesitation.
In the lobby, he looked like a lost schoolboy. Everyone else was dressed like warlords. Glowing capes, oversized weapons, emotes that cost more than his rent. But Hwan ignored them.
He wasn't there to win.
He was there to consume.
When the gate opened, twenty players rushed out into a misty warzone that used to be a digital city. Towers leaned. Rubble coated every street. Fog rolled in from every corner.
Players didn't wait.
Spells erupted. Blades clashed. It was chaos.
And Hwan stayed in the shadows.
Watching. Listening.
Waiting.
Then he saw it—a mage girl with a crystal staff got impaled by a shadow rogue from behind.
[MariaKillz] — TERMINATED SYSTEM AVAILABLE FOR DEVOURING Distance: 12m
He moved. Fast. Fluid.
He dodged one stray arrow. Rolled through a broken doorway. Reached the downed body.
The system asked.
Devour Now? [Y/N]
Yes.
Everything around him slowed.
Data poured into him like cold fire.
SYSTEM ABSORBED: [Frost Vengeance Core], [Ice Barrier Lv.4], [CryoNova Passive]
His breath became mist. His limbs felt lighter, colder, but stronger. Frost covered his boots.
He turned.
Another player had seen him.
"HEY! He's looting items! That's not—"
Too late.
A fire spell arced toward him. Instinct kicked in. He activated [Ice Barrier], absorbing most of the damage, and followed it up with [CryoNova]. The attacker froze, wide-eyed, locked in place.
Hwan walked forward and muttered, "Chill."
Then cracked him like glass with a borrowed Shock Blade.
SYSTEM ABSORBED: [Inferno Core Lv.2], [Fire Burst Chain]
His heart pounded, but not from fear.
From hunger.
He could feel it now—clear and loud.
The devouring was endless.
And he wasn't just climbing the ladder anymore.
He was skipping stairs.
One system at a time.