Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

Seventy thousand meters below the abyss, a glimmer of light appears. Golden threads entwine a bronze cage, silver eyes gleam with warm jade. A fish's tail ripples gently, every scale dazzling.

I love the banquet hall, atop the famous tower, where the King of Mermaids reigns.

—Excerpt from "Memoirs of a Life of Memoirs"

"One piece, two pieces, three pieces, four pieces...wait, why is one piece still missing?!"

In the vast depths of the universe, a pure white sphere, radiating a soft glow, murmurs to itself. All around is pure darkness; time seems to have stood still, and all the asteroids have ceased their rotation.

Desperate to survive, it frantically pieced together the fragments of its soul, creating another flawed soul.

The edges and lines of this soul are not smooth; they are bumpy and uneven, like a piece of paper that has been chewed up and spat out. No matter how it is pieced together, its appearance is always rugged.

Those who are merely trying to survive don't care about such trivial matters; some things are gone and they are gone, and their absence doesn't affect anything. But the five core fragments must be gathered together.

Those five fragments contain everything that is most important to him.

The light on the surviving ball flickered intermittently. After a while, he stuffed the soul in his hand back into the system library, already having made up his mind.

Time was running out; he had been wandering for over five hundred years. And the last fragment remained in his original world.

This time... he's going to get it himself.

*

"Hey, Commander, Lu Xun? Talk to me!"

"Prince Aran! Good day!"

"Twilight—Rain—Kite—"

"Ruo Ruo, let's go."

"Yu Zhuo..."

More than enough!

The person who had been sleeping in the room suddenly woke up. He looked as if he had just been pulled out of suffocation. He opened his eyes and sat in the middle of the bed, panting heavily.

The nightlight beside the bed emitted an orange glow. Yu Zhuo turned his pupils and saw a dark shadow cast on the wall, which looked exactly like his current panting appearance.

"Yu Zhuo..." The man's head was throbbing with pain. All sorts of fragmented and chaotic images rushed towards him all at once. Countless faces overlapped and shattered, occupying his entire field of vision.

[Data intrusion successful, merging in progress.]

A mechanical voice sounded in Yu Zhuo's ear, and Yu Zhuo's body trembled twice. He felt his consciousness slip out of his control, and in a daze, he seemed to have encountered something familiar yet strangely unfamiliar.

He remained motionless with his eyes open like a puppet, layers of data imprinted on his pupils. After about a minute or two, he blinked again.

The color in his golden eyes deepened, and the man's white hair, curly and barely reaching his neck, clung to his neck. The night was chilly; his high nose bridge was tinged with coldness, and his thin, pale red lips parted, a hint of confusion still lingering on his face.

Yu Zhuo's body swayed for a moment, then he stood up, opened his pale palms and clenched them again. Before long, he had completely taken control of the body.

Over and over——

A low-quality Alpha, barely reaching C rank. Due to his weak health, he often stays at home to recuperate and has had no opportunity to meet other Omegas over the years, resulting in a very small social circle.

Its characteristic pheromone is a bitter almond flavor.

As for the spiritual body... Yu Zhuo closed his eyes, explored his mind for a moment, and came to a conclusion.

He's a complete weakling, utterly useless, lacking any spiritual essence.

Yu Zhuo sighed. He had expected this. He stretched out his body and moved around a bit.

Although his rank wasn't high, he was physically healthy and not mentally disabled. After a moment's thought, Yu Zhuo realized that his conditions were better than Shen Yisui's.

He glanced around the dark room, opened the door, and went out.

This world is the world where those who eked out a living first existed, and it is also his birthplace.

Five hundred years ago, he was also an Alpha here. He didn't do anything particularly remarkable, but he made some friends and even adopted an older brother.

The only thing that went too far was that she developed a relationship with her brother into a boyfriend, and later they got married and became family members.

Then... he encountered a system. That system dismembered him, threw fragments of his soul into the universe, and left him to disappear completely over time.

The fragments of the soul scattered throughout this world are severely damaged, and Yu Zhuo's physical condition is deteriorating, which is also due to the gradual dissipation of the soul fragments within him.

Only now, with the complete integration, has his declining physical condition been stopped.

Yu Zhuo rubbed his temples and slowly walked down the stairs, where he saw that the incandescent lights were on. Several people of different figures sat on the sofa with solemn expressions. It was unclear what they were talking about, but the trembling in their voices was clearly audible.

"Isn't this just a ghost marriage? He's been dead for so many years, what use would it be for me to go?"

"What nonsense! That king is just sleeping, he is not dead. If you go there, you will only be marking him again."

"He's already been marked, how do I re-mark him?"

“You are a 3S-level Alpha; the mark can overwrite the previous one. That's a king, child…”

Yu Zhuo heard it vaguely upstairs, so he went downstairs and slowly approached the edge of the sofa by the light: "Mom and Dad, what are you talking about?"

Everyone sitting on the sofa was startled when they heard Yu Zhuo's voice. They stood up and asked Yu Zhuo in surprise, "Why are you awake? You're not feeling well, you should be sleeping now."

"I just took my medicine and can't sleep," Yu Zhuo replied casually. "What were you talking about?...A ghost marriage?"

Yu Yuanshan's expression was quite unpleasant. He made room for Yu Zhuo and sighed, "This is for your brother."

Yu Zhuo frowned and turned to look at Yu Xiangwan sitting opposite him. Yu Xiangwan was Yu Zhuo's older brother, two years older than him, and just turned twenty this year.

His appearance was completely different from Yu Zhuo's. He had silver hair and blue eyes, thick lips, and sharp, angular features. He was mostly cold and hard, and his heroic spirit was obvious in his eyes and brows.

As expected of an Alpha with a 3S rating, his yang energy level was visibly excessive.

Yu Xiangwan's expression changed slightly when she saw Yu Zhuo. He was studying to operate mechs at the military academy and rarely went home. He had never had much contact with Yu Zhuo, who was a sickly guy who stayed at home all day.

Upon seeing Yu Zhuo, he lifted his eyelids slightly, his emerald eyes staring directly at Yu Zhuo's face. Yu Zhuo's expression remained unchanged, and he called out, "Brother."

"Hmm." Yu Xiangwan nodded simply, then frowned and remained silent.

He didn't seem to like Yu Zhuo very much. High-ranking Alphas naturally feel intimidated by low-ranking Alphas, and given their strict hierarchy, an Alpha like Yu Zhuo probably wouldn't even catch Yu Xiangwan's eye.

These two brothers are worlds apart. Yu Xiangwan is at the top of the family in every aspect of physical ability, while Yu Zhuo is a conspicuous figure who always comes in last place.

Yu Zhuo looked away and sat on the edge of the sofa, asking casually, "Is Brother going to marry someone else?"