The city lights vanished behind him, swallowed by mist.
Aiden stood before the colossal gates of Base City 5 — the boundary between safety and chaos.Beyond lay the Wild Zone, a desolate expanse stretching across what had once been a continent, now ruled by mutated beasts and unstable energy fields.
A thousand meters of reinforced alloy rose above him, carved with warning sigils and blinking red beacons. The metal still bore the scars of ancient battles — claw marks as long as trucks, scorch trails from long-forgotten weapons.
He tightened the strap on his pack and took one last glance at the city's distant glow.Then he stepped through the service breach between the gates.
The world outside hit him like a wave.
The air was colder, thinner — heavy with the metallic tang of cosmic energy.The ground was cracked and uneven, littered with skeletal remains of vehicles and broken towers.Strange, luminous moss grew in the fractures, pulsing faintly in rhythm with the earth's slow heartbeat.
"So this is what's left," he murmured.
He had read about it, of course. Every student had. Fifty years after the Calamity, humanity had retaken most of the surface. But vast regions remained unclaimed — too unstable, too dangerous.The Wild Zone was one of them.
Here, mutated beasts roamed freely. Fragments of alien technology still pulsed in the ruins, leaking energies that warped everything nearby. Even martial experts rarely ventured far without full teams and armor.
Aiden had no armor. No weapon. Just himself… and the System.
He moved silently through the wasteland, each step measured.His senses extended naturally now — the Infinite Comprehension constantly mapping the environment, translating every vibration, every scent, every energy fluctuation into awareness.
Hours passed.The city disappeared entirely behind the jagged skyline.The stars above seemed closer here, unfiltered by the dome's artificial barrier.
For the first time, Aiden felt small — not in weakness, but in scale.The world was vast, alive, ancient.And somewhere in its depths, it was watching him.
He stopped near the base of a mountain ridge and rested beside the ruins of an old survey tower. The metal was warped, fused into stone — a sign of high-intensity energy exposure.
He touched the surface, and the System reacted.
[Trace detected: Unknown civilization signature.][Origin: Pre-Calamity artifact — non-human.][Recommendation: Analyze?]
"Do it."
The interface glowed faintly as energy flowed through his fingertips.The runes on the surface lit up one by one, shifting from dull gray to bright silver. A faint holographic projection flickered to life — unstable, fragmented.
A distorted voice echoed through the air.
"—The Node… unstable… synchronization failed… seal the fragments before—"
The projection cut off.Then the metal beneath his hand pulsed once — and cracked.
A hidden compartment slid open, revealing a small sphere no larger than a marble. It glowed faintly with layered runes spinning within.
Aiden picked it up carefully.
The System pulsed again.
[Item Acquired: Fragment of the First Civilization — Core Shard.][Analyzing compatibility…][Integration possible: 68%.][Would you like to integrate?]
He hesitated.The last time he'd absorbed something unknown, the entire city almost imploded.
But his curiosity won.He confirmed.
The shard dissolved instantly, its light flowing into his veins. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then his vision exploded.
He saw stars collapsing.Worlds burning.Armies of beings with wings of light and armor of flame clashing in the void.And at the center — a figure standing alone, holding the same black-silver blade now sleeping inside him.
The vision shattered.
Aiden gasped, staggering to his knees as energy surged through him. His spirit core roared like a furnace.
[Integration successful.][System Synchronization +15%.][New feature unlocked: Primordial Archive Access (Level 1).]
He wiped the blood from his nose, breathing hard.The world looked sharper again, brighter — filled with invisible threads connecting everything.
Then, from behind him, the ground trembled.
He turned slowly.
A shape moved between the fractured spires of rock — massive, quadrupedal, its scales reflecting pale blue light. Each step cracked the ground like thunder.
Aiden recognized it instantly.
A Titan-class Mutant Beast — a remnant of the first mutation wave.Even Martial Masters avoided such creatures.
The beast's head turned, eyes glowing like molten glass.It sniffed once, then roared.
Aiden raised his hand, summoning the Obsidian Edge.
The black blade formed in an instant, gleaming faintly under the moonlight.
The beast lunged.
He met it head-on.
The impact shook the valley.The shockwave tore through the dust and shattered stone, sending chunks of debris flying into the air.
Aiden slid backward, boots carving deep trenches in the earth.The beast reared back, surprised — its claws meeting resistance for the first time in years.
Aiden exhaled slowly, the air shimmering around him. His body hummed with controlled power, every muscle perfectly aligned under his comprehension.
Let's see what this world really measures strength by.
He disappeared.
The ground cracked where he had stood. In less than a blink, he reappeared behind the beast. The blade cut upward — a line of black light cleaving through scale and bone.
The beast screamed, twisting violently, tail smashing toward him like a battering ram.He ducked under it, planted his foot, and slashed again.
The Obsidian Edge sang — a deep, resonant hum that tore through matter itself.The creature's massive body split from shoulder to flank, molten blood spraying across the rocks.
Aiden landed lightly, breathing evenly.
The beast collapsed behind him, shaking the ground one last time before falling still.
Silence returned.Only the wind and the soft hum of his blade remained.
The System chimed softly.
[Target eliminated: Mutant Beast – Titan-Class.][Estimated force equivalence: 600,000 kg.][Host evaluation: Overwhelming.][Reward: 2,000 System Points.]
He exhaled, letting the blade fade back into his body.His heart rate barely rose.
It was the first time he'd killed something in this world.He expected guilt. Fear. Something.
But all he felt was clarity.
"So this is the difference between human strength… and mine."
He looked toward the mountains. Somewhere out there, the Core's signal pulsed again — faint, but insistent. Calling him deeper.
He started walking.
Miles away, the Martial Association tracked a seismic spike from the same region.Nyra stood over the holographic map, her expression unreadable.
"Whatever caused this," she said, "is moving deeper into the Wild Zone. Send drones. I want visual confirmation."
Her lieutenant hesitated. "Ma'am, if this is connected to the flare, we might be dealing with something beyond the Warrior level."
Nyra's eyes hardened. "Then it's my job to find out how far beyond."
In orbit, the Observation Probe recorded Aiden's battle.Its sensors struggled to quantify his movements. Each strike blurred the data, bending measurable constants.Finally, it stopped recording and sent a single message to the distant fortress of the Martial Alliance.
[Subject combat evaluation: Beyond planetary parameters.][Conclusion: Successor confirmed.]
Aiden stopped at the ridge's peak. The moon hung low above the horizon, silver light washing over the ruined landscape.He could see the faint glow of the Core's energy lines running beneath the ground — invisible to ordinary eyes, but clear as veins to his comprehension.
He smiled faintly.
"Guess I'm not done yet."
Then he walked on, deeper into the dark.
End of Chapter 17 — Into the Wild Zone
Would you like me to continue directly with Chapter 18 – The Relic Ruins, where Aiden follows the Core's call into an underground temple left by the First Civilization — and discovers the first true trace of the Verse beyond Blue Star?