Chapter 1: The First Sign-In
The voice faded, but the interface remained.
It hung in the air before Li Wei's eyes, not as a hologram, but as a layer of reality superimposed over the world. The text was a stark, clean white against a semi-transparent blue background, devoid of any flourish or artistic design. It was pure, brutal information.
[TYRANT'S RETRIBUTION SYSTEM v.1.0 - ONLINE] [HOST: Li Wei] [STATUS: Critical Injuries Nullified. Biological Integrity Stabilized.] [OBJECTIVE: Retribution.]
Li Wei blinked, once, twice. The words didn't vanish. He could see the cracked asphalt of the road through them, a ghostly double exposure. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, his body moving with an ease that was profoundly wrong. He should be a collection of broken parts. He should be drowning in pain. He felt… perfect. Energized. More alive than he had ever felt, even at the peak of his health.
His gaze swept the scene. It was eerily silent. No panicked crowds, no screaming sirens. The truck that had hit him was gone. Vanished. As if it had never existed. The only evidence of the catastrophe was his own car, a twisted, grotesque sculpture of metal shoved against a lamppost twenty meters away. The driver's side door was ripped clean off. That was where he should be. A smear on the dashboard.
But he was here, lying whole on the ground, his cheap suit not even torn.
"This…" he whispered, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in the silence. "A system?"
His mind, sharpened to a razor's edge by the System's activation, immediately recoiled at the absurdity. This was the stuff of the web novels he'd devoured in college, a guilty pleasure between coding sessions. Stories of truck-kun, of cheats, of overpowered protagonists in fantasy worlds. Not this. Not on the quiet, familiar streets of Shanghai in the dead of night.
He remembered laughing at the tropes. Now, he was living one. The irony was so thick he could taste it, metallic and cold.
The System interface flickered, updating.
[INITIALIZING USER PROFILE...] [SCANNING HOST'S PSYCHOLOGICAL PARAMETERS...] [CORE DRIVE: VENGEANCE (Rating: S-Class)] [WILLPOWER: A-Class] [INTELLECT: B-Class] [ADAPTABILITY: A-Class] [PROFILE CONFIRMED. WELCOME, HOST.]
It was real. Undeniably, terrifyingly real. The voice, the text, the miraculous healing—it wasn't a hallucination born from a dying brain. It was a tool. A weapon. And it had been given to him for one purpose, a purpose that echoed the vow he'd made moments before death.
Retribution.
A cold, focused calm began to settle over the initial shock. The raw, screaming emotion of his betrayal was still there, but now it was being channeled, refined, given a direction. It was no longer a helpless rage; it was fuel.
He focused his will on the interface. Show me more.
As if reading his thought, the display changed, presenting a main menu.
[STATUS] [INVENTORY] [SKILLS] [MISSIONS] [SIGN-IN] [SETTINGS]
He navigated mentally. [STATUS] showed his vitals, all optimal. [INVENTORY] was empty. [SKILLS] was a blank list. [MISSIONS] was greyed out. [SETTINGS] offered options for UI opacity and notification sounds—bizarrely mundane.
His attention fixed on [SIGN-IN]. It pulsed with a soft, golden light.
He focused on it. A new screen materialized.
[SIGN-IN FUNCTION: ACTIVE] [HOST MAY SIGN-IN ONCE EVERY 15 DAYS.] [MISSIONS WILL BE ASSIGNED BASED ON HOST'S CURRENT SITUATION AND PROGRESS TOWARDS THE OBJECTIVE OF RETRIBUTION.] [SIGN-IN REWARDS ARE RANDOMIZED AND SCALED TO THE HOST'S NEEDS.] [SIGN-IN NOW?] [YES / NO]
Fifteen days. Randomized rewards. Scaled to his needs. It was a gamble. But what did he have to lose? His life was already forfeit, a gift returned to him by this mysterious entity. His old dreams were ash. This was the only path forward.
With a thought that felt like the turning of a great, cosmic key, he selected [YES].
The interface erupted into a swirl of golden light and digital confetti. A chime, elegant and profound, echoed in his mind.
[CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FIRST SIGN-IN!] [CELEBRATORY BONUS ACTIVATED! AWARDING x3 REWARDS!] [PROCESSING...]
Li Wei held his breath. This was it. The first step.
The System scrolled through its announcements.
[REWARD #1 GRANTED: 2018 Aston Martin Valkyrie.keys have been placed in host's pocket. Vehicle is presently parked at coordinates: 50m ahead.]
Before Li Wei could process this, the next reward appeared, and it was seismic.
[REWARD #2 GRANTED: 52% Controlling Equity Stake in 'OmniStar Global Conglomerate'. All associated shareholder rights, voting power, and legal documentation have been transferred to Host. Physical documents are located in the passenger seat of Reward #1.]
OmniStar Global.
The name hit Li Wei like a physical blow. It wasn't just a company; it was a legend. A leviathan. A sprawling empire with tentacles in cutting-edge tech, heavy industry, real estate, and private aerospace. Its annual revenue was measured in the hundreds of billions of USD. Its market capitalization dwarfed that of entire small countries. Tri-Star Ventures, with its 1 billion RMB, was a minnow next to this whale. Lin Jie and Zhang Wei weren't just outplayed; they were rendered irrelevant on the global stage he now stood upon. This wasn't just getting his company back; this was being handed the keys to a financial death star.
The System wasn't finished.
[REWARD #3 GRANTED: Liquid Share Portfolio. Diversified holdings in global blue-chip companies (Tencent, Apple, Saudi Aramco, etc.) with a total market value of 10 Billion RMB. Trading authority and documentation are included.]
This was pure, liquid power. Walking-around money on an unimaginable scale. The ability to move markets, to make or break companies with a single phone call, without even touching the monumental resources of OmniStar.
[REWARD #4 GRANTED: 'Celestial Peak Villa,' The Peak, Hong Kong. Full deed of ownership and keys have been transferred. Documents are located with Reward #2.]
A villa on The Peak in Hong Kong. The most exclusive address in Asia, a symbol of ultimate success and impenetrable privacy. It wasn't just a house; it was a fortress and a statement. It said its owner existed on a different plane altogether.
The sign-in confirmation finalized.
[FIRST SIGN-IN COMPLETE. BONUS AWARD: x4 REWARDS.] [NEXT SIGN-IN AVAILABLE IN: 14 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes.]
The main menu returned. Li Wei stood there, in the middle of the empty street, for a full minute, just breathing. The cold night air felt different in his lungs. It tasted of possibility. Of imminent ruin. Not his own.
His hand, almost of its own volition, slipped into the pocket of his trousers. His fingers brushed against cold, precision-cut metal. He pulled out a key fob, sleek and black, with the winged emblem of an Aston Martin. It felt heavy. Real.
He looked up. Fifty meters ahead, under the glow of a streetlamp, was a car that looked like it had driven straight out of a concept show. Low, wide, aggressively beautiful, and painted in a deep, sinister shade of gunmetal grey. The Aston Martin Valkyrie. It looked less like a mode of transport and more like a predator waiting for its master.
He walked towards it, his steps measured and sure. Each footfall felt like a hammer strike on the coffin of his old life. He reached the car, its dihedral doors rising upward with a silent, hydraulic whisper like the unfolding wings of a bird of prey.
The interior was a cockpit of carbon fiber and fine leather. And there, on the passenger seat, lay two simple, elegant folders. One was thick, bound in legal leather. The other was slimmer, containing architectural plans and a set of keys.
He slid into the driver's seat. The seat embraced him perfectly. The smell of new leather and advanced electronics filled his nostrils. He placed the two folders on the passenger seat next to the system's gifts. He just sat for a moment, his hands resting on the Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel.
This was real. It was all real.
He pressed the engine start button. The car didn't roar. It awoke. A deep, resonant hum vibrated through the carbon-fiber monocoque, the sound of a contained storm. The digital dashboard lit up, a symphony of information.
He pulled away from the curb, the hypercar gliding through the night with an effortless, terrifying grace. The city lights streamed past the canopy-like windshield, becoming luminous streaks. He drove without a clear destination for a few minutes, simply feeling the power at his fingertips, a physical manifestation of the new power that coursed through his life.
His destination solidified in his mind. Jade Dragon Villa. Xintiandi. Home. Or at least, his new base of operations.
He was about to engage the navigation system when a sound broke the calm within the car. It wasn't the System. It was familiar, yet utterly alien in his new context.
It was the ringtone of his cheap, battered smartphone, synced to the car's Bluetooth system. The caller ID flashed across the central screen, a name that sent a jolt of pure, undiluted ice through his veins.
It was the number for Tri-Star Ventures' main executive line. The caller ID specifically read: Lin Jie, CFO.
The System interface, which had minimized to a small, translucent icon in the corner of his vision, pulsed once, softly, in time with the ringing.