S Ranked Reincarnation: My Infinite Leveling System

The water was a cold, suffocating coffin.

Ning Que's body seized, a marionette thrashed by an unseen hand. His limbs flailed against the high-pressure fluid of the Submersion Chamber, a desperate, silent ballet of agony.

Bubbles erupted from the corners of his breather mask, each one a stolen gasp. His eyes, wide with panic, saw nothing but the distorted reflections of the lab beyond the curved glass and the flickering hellscape of his own system interface.

[CRITICAL DATA CONFLICT: MEMORY FRAGMENT_77B] [INPUT SOURCE UNKNOWN: OVERRIDING GUILD PROTOCOLS] [glyph_error#@$%^...glyph_error#@$%^]

Incomprehensible symbols burned across his vision, bleeding into corrupted status windows that pulsed like dying hearts. He was drowning in data, a torrent of someone else's life flooding the fragile architecture of his own.

Deeper than the Guild's most invasive scans could ever reach, a lockbox buried in the bedrock of his soul began to tremble. Something ancient, dormant, and utterly alien was stirring.

The fragments hit him in waves, each more violent than the last.

A flash: A sky of bruised purple and sickly green, choked with the smoke of orbital bombardments. He stood on a mountain of twisted metal and bone, a blade in his hand that hummed with a light he didn't recognize.

Another flash: A sprawling, crystalline city shattering under the weight of an unseen leviathan. The screams were silent, psychic echoes that clawed at his sanity.

And again, and again: A forgotten war. A legion of soldiers clad in armor that seemed to drink the light. And a figure, always there, cloaked in shadow at the edge of the memory.

It never moved, yet it was always present. Its eyes, two points of molten silver, fixed on him through the chaos. A voice, not Tao's arrogant baritone but something colder, sharper, slithered into his mind, a whisper laced with a millennium of venom.

Ning Que…

The name was an accusation. A curse. A promise of pain.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it all stopped.

The violent convulsions ceased. The screaming data streams vanished. The flashes of war faded to nothing. For one terrifying second, there was only silence and a profound, bottomless black. Ning Que floated, limp and empty, suspended in the absolute void.

A new screen ignited in his vision, stark and brutal against the darkness. The text was blood-red.

[REINITIALIZING CORE SYSTEM FILES...] [ERROR... CONFLICTING ROOT DIRECTORY DETECTED.] [OVERRIDE COMMAND RECEIVED. SOURCE: ???] [OVERRIDE ACCEPTED.] [NEW SYSTEM NODE ESTABLISHED: THE RECLAIMER PROTOCOL]

A beat of perfect stillness, and then the universe detonated.

A pulse of raw, untamed mana erupted from his body. It wasn't a wave; it was a physical hammer blow against reality. The reinforced polycarbonate glass of the chamber screamed, a high-pitched whine of molecular stress. Fissures, like jagged lightning, spiderwebbed across its surface.

"What is that reading? Get him out of there!" a technician shrieked from the observation deck.

"Emergency locks are failing! It's a complete system cascade!"

Alarms blared, a cacophony of sirens and automated warnings that were drowned out by the low, resonant hum emanating from the fracturing tank.

Inside, Ning Que's eyes snapped open. The irises were no longer their familiar black. They were molten gold, burning with a chaotic, unstable power that promised only destruction.

His body arched back in one final, convulsive spasm. The chamber didn't just break; it detonated. A concussive blast of psychic energy and superheated water exploded outward. Technicians were thrown from their feet like dolls, their screams cut short as they slammed into consoles and walls.

Valerius, having just arrived to witness the final stages of the test, cursed and threw his arm up. The wave of force struck his kinetic barrier, making it shimmer violently, but he held his ground, his face a mask of disbelief and rage.

Steam and acrid smoke filled the ruined laboratory. The air thrummed with a residual, unnatural energy that made the hairs on his arm stand on end.

From the mangled, smoking wreckage of the test unit, a figure rose. Soaked, shirtless, with steam rising from his skin in the cool air, Ning Que stood tall. His right hand clenched, and with a soft chime of synthesized energy, the Katana of Light materialized in his grasp, its blade humming with a newfound intensity. His body wasn't just wet; it was crackling with fine, thread-like arcs of golden lightning.

His system interface flickered back online, no longer a chaotic mess of corrupted files but a sleek, streamlined UI, clean and lethally efficient.

[SYSTEM STATUS: REBOOT COMPLETE] [RANK: E+] [LEVEL: 15] [SKILL RECOMPILATION IN PROGRESS... 34%] [UNLOCKED: CLASS TRAIT "RECLAMATION"] [WARNING: CORE SYNC AT 47%. SYSTEM STABILITY COMPROMISED.]

He took a breath, the first breath that felt truly his own since entering the tank. His gaze, sharp and impossibly clear, settled on the one man left standing.

"Valerius," his voice was low, calm, but charged with the thunder of the explosion. "What the hell was that? What did you put me into?"

Valerius lowered his arm, his face contorted into a snarl that barely concealed his shock.

"That was a memory extraction protocol. A test. One, you weren't meant to survive."

"You say that like it was a certainty," Ning replied, taking a step forward. Water dripped from his hair onto the scorched floor. "Did you load it with something extra? Something you didn't tell Grandmaster Li about?"

"Your delusions are irrelevant," Valerius spat, regaining his composure. "You've destroyed millions of credits' worth of Guild equipment. You will answer for this."

"I think you'll be the one answering questions," Ning said. As he spoke, his system pinged, new data flashing across his vision. It wasn't a glitch. It was a tactical overlay.

[ALERT: MULTIPLE UNAUTHORIZED MANA SIGNATURES DETECTED, LOWER LEVELS.] [ALERT: GUILD SECURITY BREACH IN PROGRESS.]

The system zoomed in, painting the Guild's schematic in his mind's eye. Red icons flared to life. One, deep in the sublevels, was a monstrous, pulsating blot of energy.

[SIGNATURE ANALYSIS: SUBJECT UNKNOWN. TIER: ???. CLASSIFICATION: ABYSSAL.]

***

In a sanctum carved from obsidian and shadow deep beneath the Guild, Tao watched the chaos unfold on a massive, floating monitor. The screen showed a live feed of the ruined lab, centered on Ning Que's defiant stance.

A thin, cruel smile played on Tao's lips. His form was unstable, the handsome visage of the Guild Hunter flickering and distorting, revealing glimpses of the monstrous, chitinous being beneath. Liquid shadow writhed under his skin, and his eyes shifted from human brown to slitted gold and back again.

"So the little Reclaimer seed has sprouted," he mused, his voice a low hiss that echoed in the chamber. "The system is evolving. Hmph. Faster than I anticipated. Valerius's greed made him the perfect catalyst."

Behind him, two figures knelt in perfect silence, their forms shrouded in heavy black robes that seemed to absorb the faint light of the room. Their breathing was unnaturally steady.

"Lei Shen. Mu Feng," Tao said without turning. Check My Virtual Library Empire (MV1LEMP1YR) for the latest updates.

"Master Tao," they replied in unison, their voices muffled by their cowls.

"The timetable has been accelerated. The asset is active, but unstable. I need him contained. Go. Intercept him. Bring him to the Hall of Shards. Alive, if you can manage it. If not…" Tao let the sentence hang, his smile widening. "Well, a corpse is still a valuable specimen."

"And the Guild?" Lei Shen asked, his voice rough, like grinding stone.

"Let them burn," Tao answered, his eyes fixed on Ning Que's golden gaze on the screen. "Their era is over. Delay him. Distract him. But do not underestimate him. The new system is untested, but it is… potent."

The two robed Hunters bowed their heads, then melted back into the shadows, their presence vanishing as if it had never been.

***

Back in the lab, the alarms screamed their frantic rhythm. Ning's system was a flurry of information, highlighting three more of the red icons. They weren't in the sublevels; they were embedded among the Guild staff, moving with purpose. One was heading directly for the medical ward. Where his team was.

"Lian… Aeris…" he whispered.

His eyes narrowed, the golden light within them hardening into points of pure intent.

"I have to get to them. Now."

"You're not going anywhere, anomaly," Valerius barked, taking a step to block his path. "You are Guild property until I say otherwise!"

"Get out of my way, Valerius."

"Or what? You'll destroy another lab?"

Ning didn't answer with words. He moved. It wasn't the explosive, slightly clumsy speed he'd had before. This was different. A fluid, economical motion, like a drop of oil gliding across glass.

He sidestepped Valerius's intercepting arm with an impossible, instantaneous shift of weight. The movement was so precise, so refined, it looked less like a dodge and more like he'd phased through the space Valerius intended to occupy.

Before Valerius could even turn, the Katana of Light flashed. It wasn't a wild swing. It was a single, perfect arc of energy that carved through the reinforced steel door of the observation chamber as if it were paper. The severed section fell inward with a deafening clang.

Without a backward glance, Ning Que was through the opening, sprinting down the sterile white corridor. His system was his guide, a silent partner painting the world in tactical data. Green lines highlighted the fastest route. Yellow arrows suggested angles of approach around corners. Red icons pulsed with lethal intent.

He burst into the medical ward. The room was quiet, filled with the gentle hum of recovery pods. But one pod was open. And standing over it, a man in a Guild medic's uniform raised a long, thin blade, its edge coated in a dark, corrosive poison. Inside the pod, Lian Zhen was just stirring, her eyes fluttering open in confusion.

[CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED] [SKILL ACTIVATION: PHANTOM DASH] [SKILL ACTIVATION: FLICKER CUT LV.1]

Time seemed to warp. In one instant, Ning was at the doorway. In the next, he was behind the assassin, his own body a blur of motion. His katana hissed as he drew it upward in a seamless, diagonal slash. There was no wasted energy, no follow-through. Just a single, perfect strike.

Blood arced through the air, spraying across the sterile white wall. The assassin made a choked, gurgling sound and slumped to the floor, his body twitching before falling still.

Lian's eyes widened, first in fear, then in utter shock as she focused on him.

"Ning Que? You how ?"

"No time," he said, his voice tight. He sliced the lock on the pod next to hers, and Jin Zhao stumbled out, groggy but alert. "Tao's people are inside the Guild. He's made his move. Get the others. We're fighting our way out."

The ward erupted into action. As Jin and a now-steady Lian woke the rest of their team, two more "medics" burst in, their faces twisted in grimaces of fanatical devotion. Ning met them head-on, his system flashing, his blade a golden whirlwind. He was faster, stronger, his movements guided by a combat sense that felt both alien and intimately familiar.

As the last corrupted agent fell, a profound silence descended upon the corridor outside. The alarms suddenly cut out. The emergency lights flickered and died, plunging the hallway into a dim, oppressive twilight. Ning felt it first as a pressure, a warping of the very air that made his new system scream warnings.

Behind them, a section of the corridor wall rippled, the metal and plasteel dissolving into a patch of pure, churning darkness. A figure stepped through the portal as if walking through an open door.

He looked human, dressed in a simple, dark tunic. But his eyes glowed with the same malevolent red-gold as the monstrous signature deep below, and his very presence twisted the flow of mana around him, making the air thick and hard to breathe.

Ning's system went haywire.

[NEW ENTITY DETECTED: CLASS ??? ERROR] [ATTEMPTING TO READ LEVEL... ACCESS DENIED] [ANALYZING MANA SIGNATURE... FAILED. SIGNATURE EXCEEDS PARAMETERS.] [CAUTION: THIS BEING IS NOT BOUND BY THE CURRENT SYSTEM. EXTREME THREAT.]

The man smiled, a slow, predatory grin that held no warmth. "So," he said, his voice unnervingly calm and resonant. "You're the little Reclaimer everyone's fussing about. The one with the broken toy."

Ning raised his sword, the golden light of the blade casting long, dancing shadows. His team, sensing the immense danger, fell into a defensive formation behind him, their own weapons drawn.

The man chuckled, a low, rumbling sound that seemed to vibrate in their bones. He pointed a casual finger at Ning.

"You're still so incomplete, system-boy. Look at you. Core sync is at less than fifty percent. Your very soul is out of alignment. You don't even know what you are, do you?"

He took a languid step forward, the floor groaning faintly under his weight.

"You have a piece of something magnificent inside you, but you're just the cage. A flawed, temporary vessel," the man continued, his red-gold eyes boring into Ning's. "But don't worry your pretty little head about it."

He crouched slightly, his body coiling like a serpent.

"You'll find out what you really are. Right before you die."

He lunged…