━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
{Analyzing complete…}
{Creating channel into Cosmic System Authority…}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The black panel flickered violently afterward.
Unlike the ordinary system, its words carried no emotion whatsoever.
Cold.
Ancient.
Absolute.
Then more lines appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
{Access gained…}
{Overwriting correction protocol…}
{Overwriting erasure sequence and erasing host information from the system will empty the Talent Bank's energy reserves, resulting in a one-year dormancy until sufficient energy is reabsorbed.}
{Dormancy duration may be reduced through absorption of higher-world energy sources.}
{Continue overwriting?}
[Y / N]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael barely processed the words.
At this point, his consciousness was already fading from the unbearable pain consuming his body.
Every second felt like his existence was being shredded apart and rewritten repeatedly.
Blood dripped steadily onto the bus floor beneath him.
His vision darkened.
Thoughts became sluggish.
The only thing remaining in his mind—
Was desperation.
He just wanted the pain to stop.
Without hesitation—
Zael pressed YES.
He didn't even fully read the consequences.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
{Ding! Approval granted…}
{Commencing overwrite…}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The moment those words appeared—
Everything froze.
The pain stopped instantly.
Not reduced.
Not weakened.
Stopped.
Complete silence filled Zael's senses afterward.
Then—
The crimson notifications throughout his vision began collapsing one after another.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correction Sequence Interrupted…]
[Erasure Protocol Corrupted…]
[Authority Link Lost…]
[Searching for Host Information…]
[Error.]
[Error.]
[Error.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The red system messages suddenly distorted violently before shattering apart entirely like broken glass.
Then—
Darkness.
Absolute darkness.
Zael slumped heavily against the bus seat afterward while breathing raggedly.
His entire body trembled slightly.
Yet despite surviving—
A deep sense of unease slowly formed within him.
Because instinctively—
He knew something important had just changed.
Something massive.
Then the black panel appeared one final time.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
{Overwrite successful.}
{Host information removed from lower cosmic correction protocols.}
{Talent Bank entering forced dormancy state.}
{Estimated dormancy duration: 365 days.}
{Warning: Talent Bank upgrade functions will remain inaccessible during dormancy.}
{Host talents and previously acquired evolutions remain fully active.}
{Final note: Grow quickly.}
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The panel vanished immediately afterward.
Completely.
As if it had never existed.
Zael sat there silently for several moments while rain continued falling outside the bus windows.
His breathing slowly stabilized.
But his heart remained heavy.
One year.
For one entire year—
The Talent Bank would no longer be able to evolve or upgrade anything for him.
Zael remained seated silently for a long time afterward.
The rain outside gradually weakened into a soft drizzle while the bus continued speeding through the night.
Yet his mind remained anything but calm.
Conceptual Authority.
Sacred Cosmic Code.
Erasure.
Those words replayed repeatedly in his head.
Until now, despite everything strange surrounding his talents, Zael had still subconsciously viewed the system as exactly that—
A system.
Powerful perhaps.
Mysterious certainly.
But still within the realm of understanding eventually.
Now though—
That illusion had shattered completely.
Because what just happened proved something terrifying.
The universe itself had reacted to him.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
And worse—
It tried to erase him for it.
Zael slowly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth before reopening his status panel cautiously.
Thankfully—
Everything was still there.
His talents.
His skills.
His bloodline powers.
Even the newly evolved abilities remained intact.
Only one thing had changed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Talent Bank Status: Dormant
Remaining Dormancy: 364 Days 23 Hours 51 Minutes
Upgrade Functions: Locked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael stared at the panel quietly.
Truthfully—
Losing the upgrade function hurt badly.
The talent bank had been one of his greatest advantages from the very beginning.
Without it, his future growth would slow significantly compared to before.
But compared to being erased from existence entirely—
This outcome was acceptable.
More importantly—
Something else bothered him.
To him the talent bank had always been straight forward... He get a new talent and it upgrades or better still evolves it...but this...the black panel...the universal system corruption and overwriting....it was something else...
What exactly was it?
It clearly wasn't part of the normal system.
Its authority even seemed capable of interfering directly with whatever cosmic law tried to erase him.
And the phrase—
"Grow quickly."
Why did that sound less like advice…
And more like a warning?
Zael leaned his head back afterward while closing his eyes briefly.
For the first time since transmigrating—
He genuinely felt small again.
Not weak.
Not untalented.
Small.
Because the things he touched tonight clearly existed on a scale far beyond planets, worlds, or ordinary awakeners.
And somehow—
He had already gotten entangled with them.
A bitter smile appeared on his face afterward.
"What the hell did I transmigrate into…"
The bus eventually began slowing down several minutes later.
A soft mechanical voice echoed throughout the vehicle.
"Next stop: Blackstone City Central Terminal."
Zael opened his eyes slowly afterward.
Outside the window—
A massive city illuminated by countless lights stretched beneath the dark night sky.
His home.
Or at least—
The closest thing he had to one now.
As the bus finally entered the terminal, Zael stood up quietly and grabbed his belongings.
The moment he stepped off the bus—
A familiar scent hit him instantly.
Rain.
Steel.
Mana.
Home.
Yet before he could properly process the feeling—
Sovereign Instinct suddenly activated violently.
Zael's eyes sharpened instantly.
Someone was watching him.