Two figures descended into the basement, their movements precise and coordinated. Kenji pressed himself deeper into the shadows, void energy coiling around him like protective armor.
[Enemy Analysis Complete]
[Target 1: Elena Vasquez - A-Rank Psychic Enforcer]
[Abilities: Mind Shield, Telekinesis, Emotional Manipulation]
[Threat Level: Extreme]
[Target 2: Marcus Chen - B-Rank Enhancement Specialist]
[Abilities: Enhanced Reflexes, Predictive Analysis, Weapon Mastery]
[Threat Level: High]
A-Rank? I'm Level 2, and I'm supposed to fight an A-Rank?
"Rodriguez is unconscious but alive," the woman Elena reported, kneeling beside the fallen man.
Her voice carried an odd resonance that made Kenji's teeth ache.
"Whatever hit him drained his neural energy. That's not a standard awakening ability."
Marcus swept his weapon across the basement, enhanced reflexes allowing him to track minute movements in the darkness.
"Void energy traces are everywhere. This isn't just a new awakening, this is something else entirely."
"Agreed," Elena said, her device pulsing faster.
"The energy signature is unlike anything in our database. It's... ancient. Pre-Shutdown ancient."
[Skill Activated: Void Sight Enhanced]
Through his enhanced vision, Kenji could see their power auras.
Elena's mind glowed with silver threads of psychic energy, while Marcus radiated a steady blue enhancement field.
But something else caught his attention, thin golden lines connecting them both to something above.
They're being monitored. Someone's watching this entire operation.
[New Skill Unlocked: Tactical Analysis - Level 1]
[Assessment: Direct confrontation inadvisable. Recommend guerrilla tactics.]
Kenji grinned in the darkness. The system was learning, adapting to his fighting style. It wasn't just giving him power—it was teaching him how to use it.
"I know you're down here," Elena called out, her voice taking on a hypnotic quality. "There's no need to hide. We're not here to hurt you."
[Psychic Manipulation Detected]
[Mental Resistance Activated]
[Void Affinity provides natural psychic immunity]
The attempted mind control washed over him harmlessly, absorbed by the void energy surrounding his consciousness. Elena's eyes widened in surprise.
"Impossible," she breathed. "No one has natural psychic resistance that strong."
"Unless," Marcus said slowly, "he's not just awakened. What if he's connected to an original Legacy System?"
They know about the capsule. They know more than they're letting on.
[Quest Update: Survive the Retrieval Team]
[New Objective: Extract Information Before Elimination]
[Bonus Objective: Discover the Council's True Purpose]
Kenji made his decision. Information was power, and he needed to understand what he was really dealing with.
[Shadow Step Activated]
Darkness wrapped around him as he moved, positioning himself behind a stack of old boxes.
He gathered void energy into his hands, shaping it into something new not an attack, but a tool.
[Skill Evolution: Void Manipulation → Void Construct]
[New Ability: Void Tendrils - Level 1]
Invisible threads of void energy extended from his position, snaking through the basement toward both targets.
They couldn't see them, couldn't sense them, but Kenji could feel everything they touched.
"Let's make this simple," he said, his voice echoing from multiple directions as the void energy carried it.
"Tell me who you work for, and I might let you leave."
Elena spun toward the sound, her psychic abilities flaring. "Directional audio manipulation. He's more advanced than we thought."
Marcus's enhanced reflexes kicked in, and he fired three precise shots at where he calculated the voice originated.
The bullets passed harmlessly through empty air.
"Wrong," Kenji said, now speaking from the opposite side of the basement. "Try again."
[Void Tendrils: Contact Established]
The invisible energy threads touched both targets simultaneously.
Suddenly, Kenji could sense their surface thoughts, their emotional states, and fragments of their memories.
Elena: ...can't let him escape, Council will have our heads if a Legacy User gets away...
Marcus: ...thirty years of secrecy, all for nothing if this gets out...
[New Skill Unlocked: Void Resonance - Level 1]
[Ability: Read surface thoughts through void energy contact]
"The Council," Kenji said, his voice carrying new authority. "You're terrified of them. Why?"
"How are you—" Elena began, then stopped, her psychic training recognizing the intrusion. "He's reading us. That's impossible. Void energy doesn't work that way."
"Maybe it doesn't work that way for you," Kenji stepped out of the shadows, void energy swirling visibly around him now. "But I'm not like you, am I?"
For the first time, they got a clear look at him. A seventeen-year-old boy with ordinary features, but surrounded by an aura of absolute darkness that seemed to bend light around him.
His eyes held depths that shouldn't exist in someone so young.
"My God," Marcus whispered. "He's not just awakened. He's evolving."
[System Notification: Truth Detected]
[Evolution Progress: 0.3% Complete]
[Note: Your growth rate exceeds standard parameters]
"Evolution?" Kenji latched onto the word. "What does that mean?"
Elena raised her hands, silver energy crackling between her fingers. "It means you're dangerous. Too dangerous to leave unchecked."
She unleashed a wave of psychic force that would have shattered a normal person's mind. It crashed against Kenji's void aura and simply... disappeared.
"My turn," he said quietly.
[Skill Combination: Shadow Step + Void Construct]
[New Technique: Void Assault - Level 1]
Kenji vanished from view, reappearing behind Elena in a burst of darkness. Void energy formed solid constructs around his hands—not weapons, but restraints.
Dark tendrils wrapped around her arms and legs, holding her immobile.
"I don't want to hurt you," he said, his voice carrying genuine sincerity. "But I need answers."
Marcus moved with enhanced speed, his weapon tracking Kenji's new position. But the young man was ready.
[Void Manipulation: Environmental Control]
The shadows in the basement deepened, becoming almost solid.
Marcus's enhanced vision struggled to penetrate the unnatural darkness as void energy interfered with his predictive abilities.
"You can't see me," Kenji said, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere. "But I can see you perfectly."
A construct of pure void energy struck Marcus from behind, not hard enough to seriously injure, but sufficient to drop him to his knees.
More tendrils wrapped around him, holding him in place.
[Combat Victory: Flawless]
[EXP Gained: 400]
[Level Up! You are now Level 3]
[New Skill Unlocked: Void Dominion - Level 1]
Power flooded through Kenji's body as he leveled up again. The void energy around him intensified, and he felt his connection to the strange realm beyond reality strengthen.
"Now," he said, standing between his captives, "let's talk about this Council of yours."
Elena struggled against the void restraints, her psychic abilities useless against the alien energy.
"You don't understand what you're dealing with. The Council exists to maintain balance. Without them, the world would tear itself apart."
"Balance?" Kenji laughed bitterly. "You mean the balance that keeps people like me powerless while the awakened rule over everyone else?"
"The Shutdown Protocol was necessary," Marcus said, his enhancement abilities working to analyze the void constructs holding him.
"When Aethelgard disappeared, some players gained too much power. They were becoming gods."
[Memory Fragment Accessed via Void Resonance]
Suddenly, Kenji saw flashes of Marcus's memories. A burning city. People with god-like abilities are fighting in the streets.
Reality itself is bending and breaking under the strain of uncontrolled power.
"The Council was formed by the surviving A-Rank players," Elena continued.
"They shut down the game, destroyed the Legacy Systems, and established the current order. It's not perfect, but it's stable."
"And now I'm threatening that stability," Kenji said, understanding dawning. "Because I awakened through a Legacy System."
"Legacy Systems don't just grant power," Marcus said quietly. "They grant unlimited growth potential. No level caps, no power restrictions. In the wrong hands..."
"In the wrong hands, they could break reality itself," Elena finished. "That's why they all had to be destroyed. That's why you have to come with us."
[System Warning: Hostile Entities Approaching]
[Reinforcements Detected: ETA 3 Minutes]
[Recommendation: Immediate Evacuation]
Kenji felt the approach of multiple vehicles, more operatives moving to surround his house. The Council wasn't taking any chances.
"Reinforcements," he said, releasing his captives. "How many?"
Elena rubbed her wrists where the void restraints had held her. "Enough. The Council doesn't believe in half-measures."
"Then I guess I'm done playing nice," Kenji said, void energy beginning to swirl more violently around him.
[Emergency Protocol Activated]
[Accessing Legacy System Database...]
[Download Complete: Combat Protocols Alpha Through Delta]
[Warning: Extended use may accelerate evolution beyond safe parameters]
New knowledge flooded Kenji's mind—techniques used by the original Aethelgard players, combat strategies refined through countless battles, and power applications that defied conventional logic.
"You're accessing the original database," Elena breathed, her device now screaming with energy readings. "That's impossible. The servers were destroyed."
"Were they?" Kenji smiled, and for the first time, it wasn't entirely human. "Or did they just move somewhere the Council couldn't reach?"
[Quest Complete: Survive the Retrieval Team]
[New Quest: Escape the Council Dragnet]
[Objective: Reach a safe location before full containment]
[Reward: Access to Hidden Sanctuary]
[Failure Condition: Capture by Council Forces]
The sound of vehicles screeching to a halt outside confirmed his worst fears. Through the floorboards, he could hear coordinated movement, tactical communications, and the whine of energy weapons charging.
"Last chance," he said to Elena and Marcus. "Tell me where I can find others like me. Other Legacy Users."
"There are no others," Elena said. "You're the first in thirty years."
[Lie Detected via Void Resonance]
"Try again," Kenji said, void energy flaring dangerously.
Marcus met his eyes with something approaching respect. "There's a place. Hidden in the old ruins of Tokyo Central.
If anyone survived the purges, that's where they'd be."
"Tokyo Central was destroyed in the Cataclysm," Elena protested.
"The surface was," Marcus corrected. "But there are levels below. Old Aethelgard architecture that exists in both dimensions."
[New Location Unlocked: The Undergarden]
[Fast Travel Available via Void Walk]
[Warning: Untested Ability - Risk Level: Extreme]
Kenji nodded, absorbing the information. Above them, he could hear the tactical team breaching his front door.
"Thank you," he said simply. "For what it's worth, I don't think you're evil. Just... misguided."
"Kenji," Elena said urgently.
"Whatever you're planning, don't. The Council has resources you can't imagine. They've been preparing for this day for thirty years."
"Good," he said, void energy beginning to tear small holes in reality around him. "I'd hate for this to be too easy."
[Skill Activated: Void Walk - Level 1]
[Destination: The Undergarden]
[Initiating Dimensional Breach...]
The basement filled with impossible darkness as Kenji stepped backward into a tear in space itself.
The last thing Elena and Marcus saw was his eyes no longer entirely human, but filled with the depth of the void itself.
"Tell your Council," his voice echoed from the closing portal, "that the age of balance is over. The game is beginning again."
The tear sealed itself, leaving only the unconscious Rodriguez and two shell-shocked operatives to explain to their superiors how a seventeen-year-old boy had just declared war on the most powerful organization in the world.
Outside, the tactical team found an empty house and a basement with impossible energy readings.
Kenji Nakamura—the Void Walker—was gone.
[Chapter 3 Complete]
[Evolution Progress: 0.8% Complete]
[New Abilities Unlocked]
[Destination Reached: The Undergarden]
[Prepare for Chapter 4: The Hidden World]