🌏 Ashen Star Realm
> A post-apocalyptic world split into ruins, rogue dimensions, shattered empires, and magical contamination. It was once Earth… now it's something far darker.
Chapter 1 – "Buried in the Ashes, Born in Chaos"
The world was burning when he opened his eyes again.
Ash fell from the sky like black snow. Cracked skyscrapers leaned like dead trees. The air reeked of ozone, blood... and something ancient.
> [System Booting... Loading Chaos Core…]
[User Identified: Li Tianming. Status: Reborn]
He gasped.
His hands — pale, trembling — were not those of the 28-year-old warlord who once ruled the southern ruins. No… they were young. Seventeen. Frail. Unscarred.
A broken screen flickered near the rubble where he lay.
> "Location: Sector 13, Dragon Empire – Dead Zone."
"Soul Count: 0 / 999999."
"Objective: Begin Assimilation. Survive."
The Chaos System was real.
The legends… the whispers he'd heard in his past life while dying under the betrayal of the Nine Heavens Sect — they were true.
He clenched his fists.
> "If the gods played dice with my life once… I'll crush their bones this time."
Suddenly — a tremor. The ground split.
From the shadows of the ruins, a monstrous hound, twice the size of a lion, with red-glowing veins and bone armor, emerged.
> "You are weak. Prey," it growled in ancient tongue.
But the system chimed coldly:
> [Beast Detected: Hell-Hound Alpha]
[Choose: Submit / Fight / Extract]
Li Tianming smirked, eyes glowing faint violet.
> "I choose… Devour."
He dashed forward.
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