Time is irrelevant. Growth is not linear. You are an open loop with no upper limit.
System Points become infinite.
All damage inflicted exists outside normal calculation.
You have become a living paradox—a presence that will never fade, because you are not defined by existence. You simply are.
Lucian closed the window gently.
Silence hung in the room again. A kind of weightless quiet that didn’t feel lonely. Just... full.
He turned and glanced at his discarded clothes, the arena jacket still hanging over the chair. Then he walked across the room, picked up the bloodstained fabric, and draped it over his shoulder.
"...Still feels the same," he whispered.
But it wasn’t.
Nothing was.
He wasn’t just stronger. He wasn’t just faster. He wasn’t even human anymore, not in the way people understood it. He could feel the shift in the world itself—how the floor didn’t resist him, how the air bent slightly as he moved.
He stepped toward the mirror, watching himself.
Same black eyes.
Same messy hair.
Same tired face.
But now, his reflection shimmered—not with light, but with presence.
He was no longer a student.
He was becoming something else.
And deep inside, he could feel it—
A thread pulling from the stars, from the far end of the cosmos.
A new trial. One that wasn’t born from dungeons or systems.
But from himself.
From what he was meant to become.
He looked up again.
"Cael."
[Yes, Lucian?]
"...You still with me?"
[Always.]
Lucian smirked faintly.
"Good. ’Cause I have a feeling this world’s about to get loud."
[Confirmed.]
And the screen faded.
The stars outside had shifted slightly.
Lucian could feel it now. Not metaphorically—literally. He could sense the movement, the drift of celestial mass. The way time pulled like a lazy current. The way gravity whispered like a fading memory. S-Rank had changed everything.
But the weight in his chest hadn’t gone away.
He turned away from the mirror, walked back to the desk, and sat down again. The room felt quiet, but not still. Like the air itself was holding its breath.
A few weeks.
That was all the time he had left.
The memory drifted in before he could stop it—her smile. That teasing smirk. The sound of her boots on the hallway floor when she used to nudge his head and call him little brother, even though he was taller.
Lucian leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
"...This time," he muttered under his breath, "I’ll be there."
He didn’t need to say her name. It echoed in his soul.
LUCY.
The moment was coming. That same night. That same event. Where everything went wrong. Where she vanished trying to protect a world that didn’t deserve her.
But this time... he wasn’t the same.
He raised one hand and flicked his fingers through the air.
"Cael."
[System Online.]
"Open the shop."
[Accessing...]