Above the skies of the city of Seoul, a private jet was flying toward the airport, reaching the runaway.
Inside, Sungjun leaned back in his leather seat, fingers tapping against the armrest as he listened to the report on his screen.
He was in deep conversation with the Prime Minister, and judging by his tone, it looked quite serious.
"Look, Mr. Mikhail, I understand your position on the Wagner Group, but they intruded into our extended territory of influence for the second time during the past three weeks. If this happens one more time, I'm afraid we will consider it as a hostile force,e and Pavel will be forced to act."
On the other side, the Prime minister of the state was almost sweating bullets with stress, "We don't have any intentions to offend Pavel but our Supreme Commander-in-Chief was taking anti-kremlin forces very seriously. We ask your coopera…"
"Hmm?" Sungjun's expression changed suddenly, halting the conversation for a moment as his bionic eye flickered, processing data faster than humanly possible.
A red alert flashed on a holographic screen inside his head.
[WARNING: SYSTEM FAILURE]
"Wha…"
Before Sungjun reacted, the jet lurched. The cabin lights flickered. The pilot's panicked voice crackled through the intercom.
"Boss! The front wheels aren't opening up— we need…"
Then, silence.
Sungjun barely had time to react before the plane crashed onto the runway.
The last thing he saw before the impact was the reflection of his own cold, unblinking gaze on the shattered screen.
Then—nothing. Everything went blank.
"Hmm… The consciousness of a sentient program made by mortals was attached to a soul? interesting."
A voice echoed through the void. Deep, mechanical. Unfamiliar.
Sungjun gasped, lungs burning as if he had been drowning, and finally surfaced for air. His body twitched as countless notifications flooded his mind, lines of data overlaying the imaging in his brain.
[WARNING: IDENTICAL SOUL DETECTED— TRANSMIGRATION IN PROGRESS]
[RESISTANCE: FAILED]
[WARNING: BREACH INTO MINDSCAPE—WILLPOWER OVERRIDEN]
[FIRST CONTACT WITH HOST'S SOUL]
[RESISTANCE TO POSSESSION: SUCCESSFUL]
[WARNING: SOUL FUSION ATTEMPT]
[RESISTANCE: FAILED]
[SOUL FUSION COMPLETE]
[REAWAKENING: MIMIC CHANGED TO OVERLORD'S AUTHORITY]
[TRANSMIGRATION COMPLETE—MEMORY INTEGRATION IN PROGRESS]
It wasn't a familiar masculine voice belonging to Neo that Sungjun knew. This one's tone was smooth and feminine.
Followed by that voice, a familiar masculine voice spoke. "Congratulations, Boss. We have been successfully integrated into a parallel world."
Sungjun clutched his head as he groggily opened his eyes, waking up in pajamas on an unfamiliar bed and in unfamiliar surroundings, which looked quite modest compared to his usual lifestyle.
Sungjun sat up and looked around. "What in the hell is going on?"
He couldn't help but look at his hands and legs, which looked much thicker and fitter than he remembered. There was little to no fat on his arms, and he could spot veins with his naked eyes. Before he could react further, the feminine yet with a hint of robotic voice spoke in his head, this time greeting him.
"Welcome, Administrator. Please wait for a while until the integration of your memories is completed."
"Who is that?" Sungjun looked around before realizing that it was coming from inside his head. "Neo, is that you?" He asked aloud.
The masculine voice responded to his question. "No, it isn't, boss. It is my counterpart, Eva."
"Counterpart?" Sungjun's head filled with confusion.
The feminine voice spoke. "Hello, Administrator. You must be confused about your current situation. Please wait 32 more seconds for the memory integration process to be complete."
"What's happening?" Sungjun furrowed his brows, thinking deeply. "The last thing I remembered is on the plane and Sssss" He hissed, clutching his head. "The plane crashed, that's right. Neo, how much time has passed since that accident?"
"Boss, you died in the plane crash." The masculine voice replied calmly.
"Wha…" Sungjun's eyes widened, his eyes shifting gaze once again to his hands. The masculine voice continued. "We transmigrated into parallel earth, into your counterpart. Reasons: Unknown."
"My counterpart? Parallel earth?" As Sungjun tries to process Neo's explanation, the feminine voice interrupts his thoughts with a reminder. "10 seconds left."
Ten seconds later, a torrent of foreign yet familiar memories surged through him, almost making him feel dizzy.
This world—this body—it was his. Yet, it wasn't.
His past unraveled before him like a reel of film.
The same background story. Han Sungjun was a musical prodigy, an outstanding violinist with a bright future. His mother passed away; His father is an excellent and honest police officer but a bad father; His sister is in the show biz, an actress.
At the age of 16, Han Sungjun was selected for the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He travels to Moscow for the competition. He falls in love with a fellow competitor, a Russian beauty.
The same tragedy. The night after the semifinals, they go on a drive and meet with an accident. As a result, Sungjun loses his left eye, and the girl gets badly injured.
In his past life story, the girl had the background of mafia, her father being a gangster who gets the assignment of transporting a prototype quantum AI chip—the first of its kind, to a client, but instead, the father would hide it in a bionic eye before transplanting it into Sungjun.
In this parallel life story, the girl was the daughter of a head researcher who worked in a state-sponsored secret lab. The father would then implant the world's only quantum AI chip into Sungjun's bionic eye in order to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
The same cold nights in Moscow where a decision split his fate in two.
In the past life, Sungjun saw the deaths of his father-in-law, his wife, and his 3-year-old daughter in one of the drone strikes, which resulted in becoming the first step for Sungjun to become the Mafia Overlord.
In this parallel story, Sungjun's wife dies in childbirth, and the father-in-law goes missing, which results in Sungjun taking the path of a lawyer—a profession he always wanted to take if he ever left music as it is one of the legal professions that go straight against prosecutors and police. However, in the end, he became a legal consultant to a big corporation, the Royal Gold Group. Somewhere during one of the dungeon break incidents, Sungjun awakens his powers.
And now, both paths had merged into one.
His lips quivered as streams of tears ran down his cheek. "So, Vera is alive in this reality. It's good. Very good…"
Eva, the AI embedded in his bionic eye, spoke first. "Psychological anomalies detected. Something might be off with your fusion. Would you like me to scan your mindscape?"
The second AI, in a commanding tone, hummed in amusement. "Correction: It is complete, Eva. And there is only one dominant personality. My boss: Alexander Han, the leader of Pavel, the Black Wolf of Siberia, and the Overlord Mafia of the underworld."
As Eva stayed silent, Sungjun, who gathered his thoughts, spoke aloud. "No, Neo. I'm not those things anymore. I'm nothing but a proud father to Han Jiyeon and a dutiful younger brother to Kang Saeri. Well, atleast, that's who I aim to be. Dungeons… monsters… world domination… all of them can go to hell."
Birth name: Han Sung-Jun (Alexander Han)
Age: 33
Ethnicity: Korean
Citizenship: Russia
Arcane Path: Mage
Ability: Overlord's Authority (max potential: Tier-1)
Current Rank: Tier-7 (Can only use up to 3 extracted abilities per day)
OVERLORD'S AUTHORITY:
1) Chain of Command:
Can recruit underlings (up to 5). For every underling recruited, strength is increased by 2%.
2) Eyes of Dominion:
Can copy abilities from anyone the user sees [Limit: Only one-time use. Max: 4 abilities. Need to be in a 10-meter radius. Strength will be limited to the user's rank.]
3) Sovereign's Resistance:
The user gains high resistance to the abilities the user copied and currently stored under the Overlord's Authority. All damages from such skills are reduced by 50%.
4) Dungeon's Reins:
Can temporarily control monsters in a dungeon (up to 5) [Need Tier-6 Overlord's Authority to unlock.]
5) Inheritor's right:
The user can copy one ability from an underling and use it without limitations. [Limit: 24 hours. Need Tier-5 Overlord's Authority to unlock]
6) Trophies of the Fallen:
The user can extract one ability from a dead monster the user killed and use it without limitations. (Limit: 24 hours. Need Tier-4 Overlord's Authority to unlock]
7) Sigil of the Chosen:
Can Brand underlings with a Soul Sigil, giving them a permanent boost of 10% in strength and mana reserves [Limit: The user cannot enjoy any benefits from these special underlings, such as buffs or ability copy. Need Tier-3 Overlord's Authority to unlock]
8) Iron Loyalty:
Passively enforce loyalty into an underling [Need Tier-2 Overlord's Authority to unlock]
9) Throne of Mana:
Can use underling's mana as one's own [Need Tier-1 Overlord's Authority to unlock]