---
Chapter 0 – The Final Betrayal
The battlefield was silent.
Ashes floated through the air like snow, dancing over shattered armor and blood-soaked grass. The once-proud banner of the Black Sun Guild lay torn and trampled beneath a shattered tower, its insignia soaked in crimson.
Klaus stood at the edge of the ruins, his obsidian greatsword lodged in the earth before him, too heavy to hold—not because of its weight, but because of what he finally understood.
Everyone was dead.
Everyone… except him.
His health bar blinked red, a single digit left. His inventory was nearly empty. Potions depleted. Skills on cooldown. The pain of exhaustion pressed against his mind like a vice. But none of it mattered anymore.
Because they had left him here to die.
"Level 234, Saint-Class Duelist 'Klaus' has fallen into Critical Condition," the system echoed coldly in his ear, as if mocking him.
He turned slowly toward the ruins behind him.
"Why…?" he muttered, his voice hoarse. "Why would you…?"
His words faded into the wind.
He remembered their faces. The smiles. The shared victories. The trust. Seven years of war and triumph. Seven years of loyalty.
And now?
Gone.
"[System Alert: You have been removed from the guild 'Black Sun'.]"
The message flashed before his eyes. Cold. Final.
Klaus clenched his fists, his bloodied gauntlets creaking under the strain. His vision blurred, but not from injury. Rage. Sorrow. Disbelief. It all clawed at his chest.
They hadn't even given him the courtesy of a farewell.
It was a trap from the beginning.
He had been sent to the front lines with a handpicked elite squad—players he trusted with his life. But they had pulled back. Quietly. Subtly. Like shadows slipping through cracks.
And he had been left alone.
Not to win.
But to die.
"For the good of the guild," he whispered, repeating the words the leader—his old friend—used to say. "Sacrifice is necessary."
He laughed. It was a hollow, broken sound.
"Sacrifice, huh? Is that what I was to you?"
He staggered forward and collapsed to his knees beside a fallen comrade. The man's body had long vanished, reduced to pixels and data, but Klaus could still see the image in his mind—his eyes wide in shock as he realized too late they'd been abandoned.
They had trusted him to lead.
And he had led them to death.
He gritted his teeth.
"No," he whispered. "No more."
He raised his head toward the artificial sky—so perfectly rendered, it almost looked real. There were stars above, the binary kind, flickering with the soft hum of distant code.
This world was supposed to be their sanctuary. Their legacy.
And now it was just another graveyard.
Something shifted in the wind. A presence.
Klaus narrowed his eyes.
A cloaked figure stepped from the shadows, walking calmly across the battlefield with hands behind his back. His nameplate was hidden, but Klaus didn't need to see it.
He recognized that stride. That arrogance.
"Zero," he muttered.
The guild master. His oldest friend.
His betrayer.
"Well fought," the man said, stopping a few paces away. "Even now, you surprise me. I thought the monsters would finish you off faster."
Klaus didn't answer. His fingers curled around the hilt of his sword, but he couldn't lift it. Not anymore.
"Why?" he asked, his voice low. "Why go this far?"
Zero smiled.
"Because you stopped being useful."
Simple. Cold. Final.
"You were too respected. Too strong. Too… independent. The others followed you more than they followed me." He shrugged. "A threat like that can't be tolerated."
Klaus stared at him. "We built this guild together."
Zero nodded. "We did. And now I'll carry it forward… without you."
A pause.
Then Klaus chuckled.
It wasn't bitter this time. It was quiet. Calm. The kind of laugh a man gives when the weight of the world slips off his shoulders.
"You think you've won."
Zero frowned. "Haven't I?"
Klaus looked up at him, eyes sharper than steel.
"I gave you everything. My time. My power. My loyalty. But the one thing I never gave you… was my vision."
He rose slowly to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth.
"You killed a warrior."
He reached for the sword.
"But you awakened something far worse."
"Spare me the theatrics," Zero snapped. "You'll respawn like the rest. Broke. Alone. Forgotten."
Klaus grinned, even as his body trembled.
"No… not this time."
And then—light.
Blinding, golden, cascading from the sky like judgment itself.
[System Notification: Unique Legacy Quest Complete.]
[Initiating Timeline Divergence.]
[Do you wish to overwrite existing player data and begin anew with retained legacy?]
[Yes / No]
Zero's eyes widened. "What?! That's impossible—!"
Klaus didn't hesitate.
"[Yes.]"
The world shattered.
---
Darkness.
Silence.
Then… a breath.
His own.
Klaus opened his eyes to the soft hum of servers, the cool metallic scent of the login chamber wrapping around him. The VR capsule lid slowly lifted, revealing the sterile white of his private training room.
His heart pounded.
He sat up, checked the time.
Five years before Infinity Realms' public release.
His fingers trembled as he touched his chest, confirming what he already knew. His body was younger. Stronger. His real body. Not the digital one.
A second chance.
No. A reset.
His lips curled into a slow, deadly smile.
"They think they're building the future…"
He stood, walking to the console beside the capsule, fingers flying across the interface.
"…but I'm going to forge it."
He began typing. Business plans. Recruitment models. Market structures. All pouring out of his mind like a storm.
'This time, I won't fight for someone else's dream.'
He activated his private server space.
'This time, I'll build my own empire.'
He called up the project name:
Project Ouroboros.
A symbol of eternity.
A cycle of death and rebirth.
He tapped the screen and locked it with biometric encryption.
'And this time…'
He stared at his reflection—calm eyes, a cold smile, and the fire of vengeance burning behind both.
'No one will ever see me coming.'
---
End of Chapter 0
[Word count: ~2,060 words]