Silence wrapped the hospital room like gauze.
Thick. Sterile. Smothering.
Gu Yena sat on the edge of the hospital bed, the sheets crinkling under her weight. Her bare feet touched the cool, linoleum floor as if testing gravity for the first time. Her breath fogged the mirror mounted across the room, but it wasn't from exertion.
It was shock.
She leaned forward, fingers trembling as they grazed her reflection. Smooth skin met her touch no age lines, no exhaustion carved into her eyes. The years of sleepless nights and corporate war had vanished.
Her jawline was sharp again. Her cheekbones had their youthful prominence. The dull, weary look that once clouded her gaze had been replaced by something else:
Hunger.
This wasn't a hallucination. Not a coma. Not a drug-induced dream.
She was twenty again.
[System Interface Calibrating…]
The voice echoed inside her skull, cool and mechanical, like machinery spinning to life.
[Host Identity: Gu Yena (Age: 20)]
[Timeline Divergence: 9 years, 4 months prior to death]
[System Type: Karma Reversal Engine]
[Main Function: Luck Drain / Fate Shift / Target Elimination]
[Warning: Each use of the system may awaken dormant karma.]
Yena's brow furrowed. "Dormant karma?" she muttered, voice rasping.
[Access to Level 2 System Functions Restricted Until First Target Is Defeated.]
"Tang Ruxue," she whispered, venom coating the name. Her pulse spiked. Her nails bit into her palms.
Best friend. Business partner. Backstabber. Murderer.
Her memory snapped back to the penthouse floor marble stained with blood, the cold smile on Ruxue's face, Zihan's gentle touch just before the knife.
Yena's hands balled into fists.
If this was a second chance, she wouldn't waste it.
She wouldn't beg.
She'd rebuild, weaponize, and return every blade they'd buried in her back.
[Later That Day – Prestige Lounge, Central City]
Luxury curled in the air like perfume notes of cigar smoke, sandalwood cologne, and the stale arrogance of old money. The Prestige Lounge was the kind of place where powerful men sealed billion-dollar deals with a nod, and heiresses fought with words sharper than knives.
Polished marble floors reflected crystal chandeliers overhead. Red velvet booths lined the walls like open secrets. Soft jazz played in the background, occasionally interrupted by the clink of ice in whiskey glasses.
Yena stepped through the gilded entrance like she owned it.
She was a vision in obsidian silk sleek, tailored, with sharp heels and sharper eyes. Her makeup was subtle but calculated. Every detail screamed money, mystery, and menace.
She wasn't here to drink.
She was here to watch.
Tang Ruxue's family had just signed a joint venture deal with the Wei Conglomerate. That meant celebration and Ruxue never celebrated quietly.
Yena scanned the lounge from beneath long lashes, noting the shadows, exits, and familiar faces. The chessboard of Central City's elite hadn't changed much in nine years.
It was her advantage. They hadn't seen her coming.
Yet.
A server approached, face politely blank. "Excuse me, miss, this table is by reser"
He stopped mid-sentence. His eyes widened, glancing nervously at someone over Yena's shoulder.
She turned.
And froze.
In the furthest booth one half-swallowed by velvet curtains and shadows sat a man alone.
He didn't just look at her. He studied her.
Like a code he was about to decrypt.
He wore black from throat to cuff, no tie, no branding. A silver snake ring coiled around his left index fingermthe tail devouring its own head. An ouroboros.
But it wasn't the ring that struck her dumb.
It was his eyes.
Too dark. Not hollow endless. Like staring into a bottomless well where something ancient slept.
[Warning: Unknown Entity Detected.]
[Scanning Failed.]
[Luck Value: ???]
[System Status: Distorted. Please distance from source.]
Yena's breath caught in her throat.
"What the hell…" she whispered, her voice nearly lost in the din of low conversation and jazz.
Then, the man stood.
He didn't move like a businessman. Businessmen strode with cultivated confidence. This man moved like a blade in a sheath smooth, silent, controlled.
Predatory.
He crossed the distance between them in unhurried steps, the room somehow dimming around him.
When he stopped, he was close. Two steps away. No perfume. No bodyguards. Just weight the kind that turned oxygen into lead.
"You've returned earlier than I expected, Miss Gu."
The voice was smooth. Too smooth. Like silk laid over steel.
Her blood turned to ice.
"Returned?" she asked, her voice tighter than she meant. "How do you know who I am?"
He smiled. Barely. Just the twitch of a mouth that had seen too much and said too little.
"I remember you," he said. "Even if you don't remember me yet."
[System Stability: 83% → 71%]
[Emergency Recalibration Initiated.]
[Do Not Engage: Entity marked as Grade-S Karma Catalyst.]
Yena took half a step back. For the first time since waking in the hospital, fear gripped her. Not panic. Not anxiety.
Dread.
The system this cold, omnipotent voice in her head was warning her. Scared of him.
"What are you?" she asked, nearly breathless.
The man tilted his head, as if amused.
"They call me many things," he said softly. "But you… you used to call me King."
The word struck her like a bell. Deep. Echoing. Familiar in the way nightmares are.
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
She wanted to demand answers. To run. To scream.
But her body did none of that.
It remembered.
It ached with something forgotten something tethered not to logic, but soul.
He stepped back, and just like that, the weight of him vanished. The crowd seemed to exhale. Music returned to normal.
And before she could speak again, he was already gone melting into a hallway guarded by two men in black suits. They didn't glance her way.
[Danger Level: High]
[Shadow King Identity Confirmed]
[Karmic Link: Active]
Gu Yena stood still, the velvet booth behind her forgotten. Her legs felt weak. Her lungs burned.
She stared at the place where he'd stood.
Her heart screamed: Run.
But her soul whispered something far more dangerous.
You already knew him.
And in the life she'd just lost…
He may have been the only person who ever tried to save her.
[Midnight – Ruxue's Private Party, Floor 48 – Ivory Tower]
The party was a storm of flashing lights, DJ beats, and champagne-fueled laughter. The top floor of the Ivory Tower had been converted into a temple of excess gold-trimmed chandeliers, silk couches, and black-clad security at every entrance.
Tang Ruxue stood at the center, bathed in soft white light, her smile picture-perfect. Her dress glittered like frost. She raised her glass and toasted the future.
Your future, Yena thought coldly. Built from my blood.
Yena didn't enter from the elevator.
She came through the service stairwell, unseen. She'd timed her entrance down to the second, slipping past staff like a whisper.
Target: Tang Ruxue – Luck Value: +97
Luck Drain Success Probability: 82%
Engage Now? Y/N
Not yet.
She wanted Ruxue to see her.
To feel it coming.
Yena circled the floor like a phantom, unnoticed by most. Her eyes locked on familiar faces shareholders she'd once trusted, assistants she'd mentored, even a cousin who'd cried at her funeral.
No one recognized her.
Yet.
She reached the bar and ordered water, scanning Ruxue's orbit.
Then like fate tipping its hand Ruxue's eyes lifted.
Met hers.
The champagne flute in her hand paused mid-air.
Shock flashed in her eyes.
Then disbelief.
Then
Panic.
Gu Yena smiled.
Not warm. Not polite.
Predatory.
And walked forward, each step a declaration.