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Starbody: Breaker of Realms

章建瀛
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Synopsis
No one would know
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Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: The Universe Does Not Care Who You Are

The rain came without warning.

It always did in Malaysia—sudden, heavy, and suffocating.Not the kind that washed the city clean, but the kind that pressed everything down, trapping heat, smell, and despair beneath a wet blanket of clouds.

Lin Xingchen stood outside a convenience store on the oldest street near the port.

Neon signs flickered above him, their colors distorted by age and neglect. Red bled into blue. Green dimmed into something sickly. Reflections shattered in the puddles under his feet as cars passed, spraying muddy water onto cracked sidewalks.

Power lines sagged overhead like exposed veins.

He looked down at the plastic bag in his hand.

Painkillers.Antibiotics.Cheap bandages.

Everything he could afford with a full day of work.

Lin had lived here for twenty-two years, long enough to understand one simple truth:

Ordinary people didn't get choices.

He turned away from the store and took two steps—

"Stop."

The voice wasn't loud.It didn't need to be.

Something cold crawled up his spine.

Lin froze.

Footsteps echoed from the narrow alley beside the store. Three sets. Unhurried. Confident. The kind of confidence that came from experience—experience in knowing how these encounters ended.

He didn't turn around.

He didn't run.

Not because he was brave.

But because he knew it wouldn't matter.

On this street, people disappeared all the time.

Some said it was gangs.Some said it was debt collectors.Others whispered about bad luck.

Lin had always known better.

It wasn't luck.

It was probability.

The sound of metal sliding against metal reached his ears.

A gun being raised.

For a fraction of a second, his mind went blank.

Bang.

The gunshot tore through the rain—

—and then, the world stopped.

The bullet froze in midair.

Less than an inch from Lin's eyes.

Time fractured.

Raindrops hung motionless, suspended like strings of silver beads. The sound of rain vanished, replaced by a crushing silence so absolute it made his ears ring.

The air itself warped.

Thin cracks spread outward, visible and unnatural, as if invisible glass were being forced beyond its limits.

Lin couldn't breathe.

His heart slammed once—then slowed.

Not weak.

Not panicked.

Steady. Heavy. Powerful.

Each beat echoed through his chest like a distant engine, syncing with a rhythm far larger than his own body.

Not from Earth.Not from humanity.

Something ancient stirred.

Lin felt it before he heard it—a presence pressing against his consciousness, cold and vast, as if the universe itself had turned its attention toward him.

Then the voice came.

Not through sound.

Directly into his mind.

No emotion.No hesitation.No mercy.

—Compatibility confirmed.—Star Meridian detected.—Vessel status: Acceptable.

The words weren't spoken.

They were imprinted.

Lin tried to think. To scream. To ask what was happening.

Nothing came out.

Fear—true fear—should have consumed him.

Instead, something else happened.

The fear was… muted.

As if a part of him had already accepted this outcome.

As if his body had been waiting.

Time resumed.

The bullet dropped to the ground with a sharp metallic clink.

Rain crashed down all at once, violently reclaiming the street. Sound rushed back into existence—cars, thunder, distant shouting—overlapping and overwhelming.

The three gunmen stood frozen.

One of them trembled, his lips parting as if to speak, but no words formed. His pupils were blown wide, reflecting something far beyond the narrow alley.

Something that didn't belong in reality.

Lin slowly lowered his gaze to his right hand.

Heat pulsed beneath his skin.

A faint pattern surfaced—lines of dim starlight forming a shape too precise to be random. It shimmered for a heartbeat, then vanished, sinking back into flesh and bone.

But Lin could still feel it.

Not like an injury.

Like a coordinate.

His body felt… wrong.

Stronger. Denser. As if invisible structures were being layered inside him, redefining muscles, bones, nerves—rewriting him from the inside out.

He realized then that something fundamental had shifted.

The world hadn't changed.

He had.

Lin lifted his head and met the gunmen's eyes.

For the first time, they looked afraid.

Not the fear of being killed—

—but the fear of witnessing something that should not exist.

In that moment, a truth surfaced in Lin's mind with terrifying clarity.

This world had never been built for humans.

Humanity was temporary.Fragile.Incidental.

The universe does not care who you are.

It only cares about one thing—

Whether you are capable of bearing its power.

And now…

It had chosen him.