One Second After the Core Cracked
Everything froze.
The sky. The ground. The laws. The ranks.
The system had been pierced. The core—the very structure that governed all order, power, and even existence—had begun to crumble.
Reed stood amidst the chaos, breathing heavily. The Null-Edge had shattered in his hand. No more weapons. But it was enough.
Behind him, Shia still stood.
Wounds all over her body. But her green eyes shone brighter than ever.
"The world… is still," Shia murmured.
"Not yet," Reed replied. "This is just a pause. Before everything falls apart."
[Legal Integrity: 4%]
[Active Option: Global Purification / Erase All Anomalies]
[Priority: Reed, Shia, Goblin Army]
The system chooses not to repair.
But to erase.
The sky began to shake, not because of the army, but because the world was trying to spit out parts it did not recognize.
Goblins. Anomalies. Wild power.
Including Reed.
But Reed had known it was coming.
He was prepared.
"If the world rejects us," he said softly, "we make a new world."
His hands opened.
From within his body, a fragment of the Null-Edge core glowed.
Something not magic. Not technology. Not psionics.
Will.
The fragment began to form something. Something like code, but not a system. Like a world, but not yet there.
Shia stared at him in awe.
"My lord… are you rewriting the world?"
The goblin army gathered.
They knew they were being annihilated.
But none of them retreated.
Shia stood atop the ruins of the System platform. Her voice was loud:
"All those who are called low, those who are outcast, those who have no name—come. A new world is being created!"
And they answered with a roar:
"REED!"
"REED!"
"REED!"
Reed planted the final fragment into the world's core.
A white explosion enveloped everything.
[System Cleared]
[New System Recognized: RANK CODE NULL]
[Ruler: Reed]
No more Ranks.
No more borders.
No more racial discrimination.
But that didn't mean the world would be at peace.
It meant everything would start over.
The world was dark.
But a small light shone.
Shia stood beside Reed, gazing at the new horizon.
No more artificial sky. No more system walls. Only endless possibilities.
"We don't have any enemies anymore," he said quietly.
"No," Reed replied. "We've just become the target of the entire multiverse."
And Shia smiled. "Good."
No notifications.
No transparent screens.
No power levels.
Just… silence.
For a world that had depended on the System for thousands of years, this was the end of the world.
For Reed—it was the beginning.
He stood on a stone platform, the remains of the core that once held the System's center. Below him, hundreds of goblins gathered. Their eyes stared at him as if they were a god.
To his left, Shia stood tall—unscathed, unfeared.
"There is no longer a System to force you to submit," Reed said, his voice flat. "Now, you can be anything…or die in vain. The choice is yours."
And the goblins prostrated themselves. Not one refused.
Without a system, the ground cracked.
The laws of magic wavered.
Plants, monsters, even the sky—everything went wild.
But Shia took charge like a general.
"Build barracks in the southeast. Fortify the gap. Send out scouts. The world is coming to attack," she ordered.
She wasn't just a hero. She was an extension of Reed.
And the goblin army followed her like a machine.
Lugh, standing near the ruins of the pillar, stared at the sky in doubt.
"This is… truly systemless," he said. "I feel empty."
Bianca spooled her bow and chuckled. "Or… free."
Rina, who had been shaped to obey the system, simply stared at Reed.
"Are you… a god now?" she asked.
Reed stared at her blankly. "I'm just the ruler of a world that doesn't accept us."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a crack appeared.
Not just any crack.
A crack between worlds.
Another world, still bound by the system. A world that realized that one planet had become an anomaly.
A world that was afraid.
One by one, dimensional scouts were sent out.
And they saw it:
A man with an army of living, thinking, evolving goblins.
They came back and said, "Something is beyond our control."
At the main gate of the goblin fortress, Shia stood. Her battle armor was new—made from the world's core.
Her hand held a cracked spear, assembled from the fragments of a dead system.
Then the first crack appeared in the sky.
From it, a being with a body like light descended. Glowing, bearing the symbol of the old system.
The being spoke:
"Ruler of the New World. You have destroyed the order. We have come to repair—"
Shia's spear had already pierced his chest.
"You talk too much," she said flatly.
Reed stared at the open sky.
Other worlds would come. Would try to overthrow him. Steal what he had created.
But he said only one thing:
"Come. I am no longer subject to your rules."
And the world… began to move.