The wind howled louder the farther he leaned. Forty stories above the world, the city below looked more like a lie than a home—flat, distant, irrelevant. Joshua King stood at the edge of the rooftop, arms extended like a crucified man daring gravity to judge him.
Then he stepped forward.
Time didn't slow. It sharpened.
A flash of light from a window. The screech of rubber on asphalt. A pigeon's startled wings. Every detail etched itself into his mind as the sidewalk rushed up to meet him.
He never screamed.
---
There was no afterlife, not in any way religions had promised. Instead, Joshua woke in a place beyond space.
There was no ground. No sky. Just an expanse of velvet-black nothing that pressed in like thick oil.
Then came the voice.
It wasn't loud. It didn't echo. It settled into his skull like a memory he'd always had.
> "Joshua King. You have died."
"…Guess that's what that was," he muttered.
> "You are not a good man."
"No argument here."
> "But you are interesting. And perhaps useful."
Joshua blinked at the void. "Useful to who?"
> "To me. To existence itself. I offer you three wishes."
That stopped him.
He expected judgment. Maybe punishment. Not options.
"…What's the catch?"
> "No catch. I am curious."
He narrowed his eyes. "Three wishes, huh? Okay then. Let's make them count."
---
Wish One: "Let me devour anything—organic, spiritual, even energy—and make its power mine."
Wish Two: "Give me a body that never stops adapting. Let me evolve constantly with every battle, every kill."
Wish Three: "Give me a system. Simple, basic. Just something that shows my stats and tracks my growth."
> "Done."
"What about where I go?"
> "That was already chosen."
"…Right."
The void twisted. Gravity reasserted itself. Pain bloomed like fire.
And then—
---
He screamed.
It wasn't a human scream. It was a howling, guttural sound that shook molten trees and sent flocks of razor-winged birds spiraling out of the sky.
Joshua King was no longer human.
He lay sprawled across obsidian sand that steamed beneath his weight. Molten green waves lapped at the shore, casting phosphorescent light on his grotesque new body.
He stood.
He was a giant—a hulking, 40-meter-tall creature of muscle, sinew, and scale. His skin was charcoal black, flecked with glowing streaks of orange. Four arms coiled at his sides like serpents, each ending in clawed fingers longer than spears. His back arched beneath a mantle of bone-like ridges, and two tusks curved upward from his lower jaw.
He felt powerful. But hollow.
Then a ding echoed inside his skull.
> [SYSTEM ONLINE]
[Name: Joshua King]
[Race: Unknown Devourer]
[Level: 1]
[Strength: 57]
[Endurance: 41]
[Speed: 23]
[Adaptability: 85]
[Abilities: Devour (Passive), Absorption Core (Active), Evolution Node (Locked)]
> "Heh…"
He grinned, baring rows of obsidian fangs.
---
The world—this alien, breathing world—was massive. He would later learn it was named Y'grahal, a planet 1,000 times larger than Earth. But for now, all he knew was that it wanted to kill him.
The sky roiled with double suns and storm-laced clouds that flashed crimson and gold. Strange organisms crept over every surface. Trees were tower-sized, made of crystal bark and twitching red leaves. In the far distance, mountainous shapes moved—living mountains, slowly plodding across the horizon.
He didn't have long to take it in.
A screech echoed from the cliffs behind.
A creature leapt down.
It was roughly the size of a small building, with sinewy limbs and skin like polished steel. Four eyes blinked across a flat head, and a tongue whipped from its jaws, tasting the air.
> [Creature Detected: Class 2 Predator – Hra'zhal Hunter]
[Estimated Level: 6]
[Status: Aggressive]
It roared.
Joshua didn't flinch.
Instead, he ran at it.
---
The first battle.
The creature moved like lightning, scything claws aimed at Joshua's throat. He ducked under the first slash and slammed his lower arms into its midsection. Bone cracked. The thing reeled, shrieking.
Its tongue lashed out—wrapped around his leg—and it pulled.
Joshua toppled, hard.
The sand gave way beneath him, exposing stone. The beast lunged, jaws wide—
—And Joshua bit first.
He sank his obsidian teeth into the beast's face. It thrashed, screeched, struggled—until Joshua shoved one massive claw into its gut and activated his first power.
> [Devour Activated]
[Essence Absorbed: +2 Strength, +1 Endurance, +Skill: Predator's Instinct]
The corpse went still. It deflated slowly, like something hollowed out.
Joshua stood.
And grinned.
He flexed his new claws. They were longer now. Sharper. His eyes shifted, pupils splitting vertically like a serpent's.
> [Level Up: 2]
[New Trait Unlocked: Muscle Weave Efficiency +12%]
[Skill: Predator's Instinct – Active]
---
He hunted.
Each battle was brutal. Each victory earned him more than just power—it earned evolution.
A burrowing centipede the length of a bus granted him armor-plates along his spine.
A gliding manta-beast gave him a membrane that could slow his falls and extend jumps.
His stats ticked upward slowly, each point earned through blood, pain, and cunning.
> [Strength: 74]
[Endurance: 63]
[Speed: 41]
[Adaptability: 102]
Still no idea what the cap was.
If there was one.
---
He discovered ruins.
Half-buried beneath crystalline sand, ancient structures jutted out—metal and bone intertwined. Runes pulsed when he walked through them. Ghosts of forgotten wars whispered in flashes behind his eyes.
The devourers were once many.
Now only the silent ones remain.
Rise, consume, transcend.
It wasn't guidance. It was a dare.
And he accepted.
---
Joshua King was not a hero.
He didn't mourn the creatures he devoured. He didn't lament his monstrous form. He had always been broken, unfit for the world he was born into.
But here?
Here he was free.
He had purpose.
He would grow.
He would evolve.
He would devour this world…
And then, when it no longer fed him—
He would find another.