The Rebirth Glitch: Burning My Way to the Top

Yuan Feng casually hacked down a few stray dimensional bugs with his iron axe as he and Kai made their way down the hallway—didn't even bother using his talent.

When they reached Room 411, Kai suddenly stopped.

"This is my dorm," he said. "Boss, mind if I grab a quick drink?"

"Sure," Yuan Feng replied. He was a bit thirsty too.

But then Kai added, "Crap… I forgot my key. Mind giving the door a little push?"

That's when Yuan Feng started getting suspicious.

Who the hell forgets their dorm key during an apocalypse?

Still, after seeing Kai burn bodies and watching Lei Ming straight-up murder someone, Yuan Feng's sense of morality had already begun to erode.

Break down a door? Easy.

With his boosted stats from the global announcement, he could tear down a concrete wall if he wanted.

Bang!

The door to 411 flew open.

What they didn't expect… was someone still alive inside.

The guy looked up, stunned. "Who the hell are you?! What are you doing?!"

Yuan Feng instantly knew: This wasn't Kai's dorm.

But he didn't care.

Because—score—three dead bodies.

And bodies meant crystal cores.

He gave Kai a subtle glance and turned to the pajama-wearing survivor.

"I'm Yuan Feng. Yeah, that Yuan Feng. The global announcement guy.Now tell me: why are you the only one in here still breathing?"

The survivor blinked, clearly terrified but also skeptical.

"Yeah right," he scoffed. "And I'm the goddamn Emperor of Heaven."

But as he got to the "Emperor of Heaven" part, his voice trailed off.

Because Yuan Feng had already raised his blood-stained axe.

It was only day one of the apocalypse, but Yuan Feng had learned one thing real quick:

Never disrespect the strong.

Even the mighty student council president had to bow when faced with true power.

And this random nobody wanted to throw shade?

Dead man walking.

Yuan Feng's gaze turned icy. For a moment, he seriously considered ending this guy right here.

After all, Lei Ming had already killed one of his own right in front of him.

If Yuan Feng wanted to survive this world, he'd need to start getting used to killing too.

The survivor, Wu Yuan, felt the shift in atmosphere.His legs gave out.His voice trembled.

"B-Boss… I'm sorry, okay?! I messed up. My bad. Please don't kill me. I'm useful! I swear!"

The guy had serious survival instincts.

Yuan Feng narrowed his eyes. The killing intent faded—just a little.

Meanwhile, Kai moved to the three corpses on the floor.

He pointed a finger.Fwoosh.

A fireball ignited the two bodies on the lower right bunk, reducing them to ash in seconds.

In his mind, a system notification chimed:

Ding! Burned level-0 player corpse! Gained B-rank talent: Invisibility!Ding! Gained Speed +0.1!

Nice.

Another B-rank talent. Total win.

Kai's fireball didn't always grant a talent—more often than not, it just boosted stats.

So getting Invisibility? That was a lucky break.

Feeling good, he turned toward the final body slumped beside the desk—the one that looked exactly like Wu Yuan.

This was what he'd really come for:

An S-rank gifted corpse.

When Kai used his fireball on an S-rank corpse, the talent transfer was no longer RNG.

It was guaranteed.

He was practically buzzing with anticipation when—

"Stop!" Wu Yuan screamed. "What the hell are you doing?! That's my brother!"

He lunged, throwing himself protectively over the corpse.

The scene screamed heartfelt brotherly love.

But Kai knew the truth.

Wu Yuan didn't care about his brother.He just needed the body.

Wu Yuan and Wu Hua were identical twins.

And both had awakened S-rank talents.

Wu Hua—the dead one—had possessed a power called Magic Suppression Field:Inside it, any player with a lower-level skill or gift than his own couldn't use them at all.

It worked only against humans or humanoid enemies, and offered no direct combat boosts.

Which is why Wu Hua got wrecked by bugs on day one.

What Kai didn't know, though, was this:

Wu Hua didn't just die by chance.

He was set up. By his own brother.

Wu Yuan's talent? Even more insane.

An S-rank ability called Blood Refining Ritual.

It let him transform a recently-dead human (within 24 hours) into a Talent Crystal—a physical gem containing the deceased's gift.

Anyone who absorbed it would gain that gift as an additional talent.

Sound familiar?

Sure, it sounded a bit like Kai's fireball.

But the Blood Ritual came with major drawbacks:

The body had to be intact—no missing limbs, no crystal core damage.

The crystal would always be one rank lower than the original talent.(So Wu Hua's S-rank gift would become an A-rank crystal.)

Each player could only absorb one Talent Crystal in their entire life.

Still, even with those limitations, the Blood Refining Ritual was busted.

In Kai's past life, Qi Feng used Wu Yuan to gain an extra talent.

Later, Zhi Pavilion sold these Talent Crystals at insane prices—trading them for rare gear and resources.

That was how they rose to power.

But this time around?

Kai watched Wu Yuan cling to his brother's corpse, putting on a whole melodramatic show.

He didn't blink.

Fwoosh.

A fireball shot right through Wu Yuan—harmless to the living—and incinerated Wu Hua's body in an instant.

Ding! Burned level-0 player corpse! Gained S-rank talent: Magic Suppression Field!

Hell yes. First S-rank talent of this life—secured.

Wu Yuan sat there, stunned.

He reached out…

His brother's body was gone.

So was the corpse he'd planned to turn into a Talent Crystal.

Burned to nothing.

His face twisted in disbelief and rage.

He'd spent months planning this.

Lured dimensional bugs to murder his brother.

Killed the other two dorm mates to cover it up.

Hid the body, prepped the ritual.

And now? Gone.

Snapped.

His fury boiled over.

He turned to Yuan Feng, voice shaking with hate:

"I don't give a damn who you are—even if you're some global announcement big shot—I'm telling you now:I'm an S-rank gifted! For real!"