The Forgotten Supreme

[Real World – Year 2091]

The city lights flickered like a dying ember, drowned beneath the neon glow of holographic billboards. Skyscrapers stretched into the sky, their digital facades displaying the faces of the powerful—corporate elites who controlled not just money, but reality itself.

In this world, power wasn't determined by birth, wealth, or politics. It was determined by the game.

"Astralis: Genesis"—the first fully immersive VRMMORPG, powered by quantum AI. It wasn't just entertainment. It was a second world, a second economy, and a second life.

And for Ethan Cross, it was his only chance to escape the gutter of existence.

[A Broken Man with a Responsibility]

Ethan sat in a dimly lit apartment, surrounded by empty ramen cups and stacks of unpaid bills. His fingers trembled as he clutched a faded photograph—his parents, long gone, and beside them, a young girl with bright eyes and a hopeful smile.

His little sister, Lyra.

She was asleep in the next room, curled up under a worn-out blanket, oblivious to the fact that tomorrow they wouldn't have a home.

A gamer's life was supposed to be easy.

But for someone like Ethan—who had once been a rising star in competitive gaming—the world had no mercy. When corporate-backed players monopolized the esports scene, independent players like him were crushed.

Now?

A nobody. A failed gamer. A man one step away from losing everything.

His gaze drifted to the VR capsule in the corner of the room.

A relic from better times.

His last hope.

The game had a hidden mechanic—real-world currency integration. In-game wealth could be converted into real money. The richest guilds controlled corporate empires, and the strongest players wielded power beyond governments.

Ethan clenched his fists.

He wasn't just doing this for himself anymore.

If he failed… Lyra would suffer too.

With no other choice, he climbed into the capsule, sealed the hatch, and initiated full-dive synchronization.

[Initializing Full-Dive…]

The darkness enveloped him. His body melted away, replaced by a sensation both alien and divine. It was as if his soul was being ripped from the chains of reality and reconstructed in another dimension.

Then, a voice—glitching, distorted, yet ancient.

[Error. User profile not found.]

[Recalibrating existence…]

[Anomaly detected.]

Ethan's vision blurred. A flood of golden glyphs swirled around him, forming patterns that no human mind should comprehend. He felt weightless, his very consciousness dissolving into the digital ether.

Then—

A screen appeared.

[Character Creation: ERROR]

User: Ethan Cross

Status: Non-Existent

Error Code: 0001 - Forgotten Supreme

Ethan frowned. "What the hell is this?"

Before he could react, the game screen flickered. Instead of the standard class selection menu, something else appeared.

A single option.

One that no player before him had ever seen.

[Do you wish to become "The Forgotten Supreme"?]

A being beyond the system. A ruler of existence. A glitch in fate.

Warning: This path has never been walked before.

Consequences unknown.

Ethan's heart pounded. This was not normal.

Was this a bug? A hidden class? Some kind of prank by the devs?

His instincts screamed at him. But at this point, what did he have to lose?

He thought of Lyra, sleeping in the next room, unaware of how close they were to losing everything.

No. Failure wasn't an option.

He reached forward and clicked—

[Yes.]

[System Override Engaged]

[Initializing Authority Transfer…]

The game shattered.

The world around him collapsed into void. His body convulsed as data, knowledge, and fragments of forgotten laws burned into his mind.

Then, a whisper.

"Rewrite the world, or be erased by it."

A surge of pure power flooded through him—power that had no place in a game, power that did not belong to him.

And in that moment, Ethan realized something terrifying.

He was no longer just a player.

He was something more.

Something that should not exist.

[Prologue End]