They say the world ended with a whimper.
They're wrong.
It ended with the sound of Su Chen's heart being ripped out of his chest—not by war, not by fire or disease, but by a whisper from the lips he used to kiss goodnight.
"I'm sorry, Su Chen... I love him."
Rain fell in streaks against the broken glass dome of Skyhaven Shelter-09, mixing with blood as Su Chen knelt in a pool of betrayal.
Her name was Lin Yue. His lover. His reason for surviving the end of the world. And she was standing beside his best friend, Zhang Wei, the man Su Chen once called "brother."
The gun in Wei's hand was still smoking.
Su Chen's right arm lay useless, a bullet clean through the shoulder.
Lin Yue didn't meet his eyes.
Not even when she gave the order.
"Make it quick. He deserves at least that much."
Mercy. From the woman who once begged him to live. From the man who once promised to die for him.
He would've laughed if the pain wasn't so blinding.
Instead, he grinned — bloody teeth and cracked lips. "Quick? That's how you like it now, Yue?"
Wei flinched.
Yue didn't.
The second shot hit him in the chest. And then the world faded.
Darkness. Cold. Silence.
And then—
[System Initialization: Welcome, Su Chen.]
[System: Kill Everyone Who Loved You.]
His breath caught.
Not because he was alive — that was surprising enough — but because the voice in his head wasn't a hallucination. It was real. Mechanical. Calm. Surgical.
[Analyzing betrayal index… complete.]
[Primary Targets Identified: Lin Yue (Level 1), Zhang Wei (Level 1)]
[System Mode: Vengeance Protocol Activated]
[Reconstructing Host… 1%... 8%... 27%...]
[Warning: Host has been declared KIA (Killed In Affection) by loved ones.]
[Permission granted to override death. Initiating neural reboot.]
Then—
Pain.
Raw, incandescent pain.
Bones cracked as they realigned. Nerves rewired like exposed data cables in a thunderstorm. His heart? Rebuilt around something darker than flesh.
When he opened his eyes again, the ceiling above him was gone. The glass dome shattered completely, sky bleeding orange. Ash and fire drifted like snowflakes. The shelter was in ruins. But he was alive.
More than alive.
Changed.
His reflection in the broken glass wasn't the Su Chen they shot and left to rot. This Su Chen had black veins threading up his neck, eyes glowing faint red with interface glyphs. His heartbeat echoed like a machine drum.
[Host Reconstruction: Complete]
[Level 1: Activated]
[Skill Unlocked: Pain-to-Power (Passive)]
[Effect: Convert emotional or physical pain into temporary stat boosts]
[Status: Emotionally Annihilated. Boosts x5]
He stood, barely clothed, bleeding, and smiling like the reaper's apprentice.
"System," he said, voice hoarse. "Confirm primary directive."
[Confirmed: Kill everyone who loved you.]
"Add one more rule."
[Listening.]
"Make sure they know why."
[Request acknowledged.]
He found his first kill two days later.
Zhang Wei, once a genius tactician, now just another pawn in the Walled Cities' elite guards. Relaxed, drunk, and laughing in the ruins of Old Sector Three, as if Su Chen's blood hadn't stained his hands.
Su Chen walked in through the front gates.
They didn't stop him. They never saw him coming.
By the time Wei realized what was happening, the room was sealed and everyone else was dead.
"Su Chen—?"
He turned.
Su Chen looked exactly like the ghost Wei feared in his nightmares.
"No," Wei whispered. "You died. I— I buried you."
"You did," Su Chen said, picking up a shard of glass from a shattered bottle. "Twice. One in the heart, one in the chest. Missed the head. Poor form."
The first scream came thirty seconds later. It didn't last long.
When Su Chen walked out, his clothes were soaked. Not with his own blood this time.
[Target Eliminated: Zhang Wei]
[EXP Gained: 500]
[Level Up Achieved: Level 2 → Level 3]
[New Skill Unlocked: Memory Echo (Active)]
[Effect: Replay last memory shared with a target. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 6 hours.]
[Emotional Trauma Bonus: +20% Power Surge]
Su Chen didn't even blink.
That night, he sat by the ruins of the city's outer wall, watching drones sweep the skyline. His wounds stitched themselves with black tendrils of nanite-saturated muscle.
He lit a cigarette — an old-world habit. Maybe ironic. Maybe just nostalgic.
The System whispered again.
[Next Target: Lin Yue]
[Distance: 1.2 km. Status: Alive. Currently unaware of host survival.]
[Recommendation: Prolonged psychological warfare for maximum vengeance yield.]
He exhaled smoke, sharp and bitter.
"Psychological warfare, huh?"
He looked up at the sky, where the stars were fake and the satellites watched like gods.
"Fine," he said. "Let's break her like she broke me."
And then, calmly, as the flames of his former life smoldered behind him, Su Chen smiled for the first time in a long, long time.
Not because he felt better.
But because the world finally made sense again.
Betrayal.
Revenge.
And blood.
End of Chapter 1