Chapter 1: The successor of the shadow monarch?

Chapter 1 : The successor of the shadow monarch?

In a ruined place, there lied corpses everywhere, of dragons, elves, giants, and other monsters mixed in. But, at the center, which was a huge crater, stood a man his dagger pointing at the neck of the fallen dragon monarch.

The shadow monarch, once again said, 'Arise.' Shadow like creatures started coming out of the corpses, and all went on one knee or simply kneeled however they could do so. All of them, doing this, towards one single person, the one who called them all. The current shadow monarch, stronger than his predecessor, Sung Jin Woo.

Soon after, all the shadows went in his shadow. He was tired by the long fight, spending 90 years fighting and erasing the armies of the monarchs, took more time than he had expected, not only that, he had gained a scar on his hand during the battle with the dragon monarch by saving Igris, his most trusted shadow, also a commander in his army, though not the strongest, but the one with the most growth.

But, Sung didn't regret over the fact of saving Igris. The regret was the time he spent here, due to some sort of weapon getting in the hands of the monarchs, they all grew stronger than they should have been, resulting in the increasure of time spent here, fighting them off, proved to be more difficult than it was meant to be. Even the weakest monarch grew 30 times stronger. Though, Sung also grew stronger, it wasn't to this extent.

But, after all of this, he wanted nothing more than to meet with his dad, whom he lost in the original time line, his family, and his friend. Just as Sung was about to step out of this place through the portal. They appeared.

"We apologize, Shadow Monarch, but we can't let you enter your world. Please listen before taking any other action, we have a reason as to why, you cant enter your world anymore.", the Ruler said. Sung, the Shadow Monarch, who is currently enraged, calmed himself, and gave an expression that said for the ruler to continue.

After sighing in relief, the Ruler explained the reason. He told Sung why he can't come back. Putting it in simple words, Sung's strength had reached such a point, that his mere existence there would distort the reality, ending the world in process. Though Sung wanted to retort by telling them, that he could conceal it, he knew, it was impossible as of now. They were right, his power was so high, that he could barely conceal the magic power oozing of him at this point.

After glaring daggers at the Ruler, Sung sat down on the throne of the Dragon Monarch. After processing the situation at hand, he made a decision. He decided to live in a fake reality like his predecessor, 'Ashborne', and would find a successor. Though, Sung at first thought of passing his powers to his son or daughter, its clear that he won't be able to do that now.

The Shadow Army came out of his shadow at his command, Igris, Beru and Bellion. Along with Tusk and Khamish with some others, looked at their liege depressingly, they knew they won't be able to change his mind. Thus, they showed their willingness in their liege's wish. Sung, before going to eternal slumber, used his weakest shadows to look for a successor.

After a dozen of years in the real world, he found the one who met his requirements.

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At a school, few teens are seen, bullying a teenager of their age. The one who was being bullied looked weak, had disheveled hair, and soaked wet clothes. That's correct the one being bullied is me, my name is Ether, I am currently 16 year's old. My parents are from a middle class family, I didn't enjoy or experience luxury of any sort. Other than the high love showered on me since my birth by my parents. I am glad to be receiving this much love when I have a sister as well.

Well, I was happy. That was three years ago, after my dad got a transfer to Los Angeles, I had to change my school, I was good to everyone on the first week, my academics were pretty great too, but, I don't know why, that angered the bullies who are also known as the popular kids here. Since then, they started bullying me, I complained to the teacher, but it was no use, the teacher didn't listen to me, later I got to know that, the school was being given donations by my bullies parents, thus the staff was on their side.

This took a toll on my studies, my parent's who were always happy from me, started to scold me, and limited my freedom to one room, which put me in depression for a while as the use of electronics was banned for me, all means of my entertainment were taken away, I tried to study again, I managed to boost it back to how it was, but, it fell again after I was forced to drink the water of toilet.

After that, they bullied me more, locking me in the washrooms, was a daily occurrence. I managed to get out from there when the janitor came by, hopefully the gardener, janitor, and the other minor staff, was kind towards me. Which I appreciated, and helped them out in their work from time to time.

Once, I had a thought of telling about my bullying to my parents, but I knew, in the end, nothing much would happen, and my father works in the exact same company which one of my bullies father owns. So, worse, he could be fired, which is pretty bad for my whole family.

I can't let them fall because of me. So I decided, to endure this through till graduation.

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Soon after, my graduation came close, I was really happy but, hid it, as to not anger any of them. Afterwards, I met them again, but this time, they went overboard, just because my marks were higher than them. They, beat me up in an alley, now don't ask me how did I get there, I was blackmailed into coming there, as much as I hated to confront them again, I was left with no choice when they threatened to fire my father from his job, and insulting my sister at the job interview which was planned for tomorrow.

After giving myself bruises over the body, involuntarily. I returned home, managed to avoid my family from seeing my face.

Which was filled with swelling and cuts. On that day I cried a lot, at night, I kept crying until there was no tears left to come out of my eyes. I became determined, to get a job with high authority and power to take my revenge in future, but that was crushed. Why? My father was fired the next day, then my sister was insulted sexually at the interview. And all of them said, it was my fault.

The bullies broke their promises, they did exactly what they said they wouldn't do if I showed up... The boss of my father told him why he was being fired, the same thing was told by the interviewer to my sister. Both of them said, it was my, their son's/brother's fault. That day, my father threw me out of the house. I wandered streets at the night, dogs chasing after me, whilst I ran for the fear of getting bitten. I slept on the roads without any blanket, I caught cold next day.

While looking for food three days after, I met with the bullies, this time, there was nothing to hold me back. Even though I lacked energy, with my will, I forced my injured body to move, and catching them off-guard surely helped a lot. I took out all my rage on them, I hit them like there was no tomorrow, I even bit them with enough force to tear out some of their flesh, though lately after I was hit by a bat from the back, on the head, seemed like the work of one of them whom I didn't notice. And I passed out.

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When I woke up, I was met by a strange person, he was glowing in the darkness, all I could see was him, in front of me, standing while facing his back on me. The moment he moved, my body shuddered involuntarily, I felt great danger from him, my instincts screamed for me to run, but my body refused to move.

"Hello there, kiddo, pretty sure you don't know what's happening right? Well, let me cut it short, you are dying right now. Due to excessive bleeding, and lack of energy, you will die in few minutes. " After saying that, he turned around, he had purple eyes, which shone brighter in the darkness, he wore a armor, covered in a hue of violet, a cross on his chest plate, he gazed at me.

[Insert Sung Jin Woo with Armor made of darkness here. ]

It felt as if he peered inside my soul, but, I didn't feel fear anymore, but rather curious, as to who was he? What was the reason for him to appear in front of me? Is that how one's soul is taken to heaven or hell? Is he a reaper?

While I was running these thoughts in my mind, he chuckled. "Well, some do call me a reaper, but well, I am not exactly one, I am the concept of death itself. Ether, I have a choice for you, either you can die and go in eternal slumber where you will experience a great life, though all of it would be fake, the other choice is... To accept my offer, and become my successor."

Successor? Is death recruiting employees? Well, eternal slumber didn't sound too bad, but... If it is fake... Then, there's no reason for me to go in that. I would rather prefer the reality instead, if, I get the chance to live again, I will make sure... To destroy them, who wronged me for no reason, who drove a loving family to ruins, the devils who made a normal kid become a murderer, I will make sure... To exact revenge on them, to make them feel the pain I went through.

"...Kid, revenge is not always good you know? It will just release your vengeance and make you feel empty later on. It won't do any good, but... Even if that's the case. You aren't going to back down... Your decision is permanent, I can sense it, your determination. You make me remember of me when I was a mortal... Well, should I take that as a yes? ", the guy who called himself death, asked me.

I nodded, the moment I did so, a screen appeared in front of me.

Huh? System? What is this? A novel? Am I some sort of fictional character now? Discarding these thoughts, later, the Shadow Monarch, as the system called him, explained me his history. I was pretty shocked and touched by his actions, and also pitied that he couldn't see his family.. But well, doing this wouldn't make me reach any point, so I decided to keep those emotions aside.

Afterwards, I woke up again, but this time, I was in the past. I looked at the date and found, that it was exactly the time, when the bullying was about to begin. Once again, I was greeted with a system message.

....Do they take me as one punch man or something? I am not that strong, neither do I have the same age as when saitama began doing this... The penalty seems scary though, the rewards seems just the right thing. Though I don't know about those questions marks...

After whining a little, I started doing push-ups, when I reached the 47th push-up, my hands started trembling, I stopped for a while, then continued again, repeating this, I completed 100 push-ups. And gained a lot of pain in my arms.

Next, after few minutes, I began doing sit-ups, repeated the same strategy, and did it. Once that was done, my stomach hurt. And I spent hours in the washroom. Once I felt good, I began running outside in the park, took breaks after 3 laps, then continued till I got the message of completion of my run. My chest burned a lot, I layed down on the grass to catch breath, and after resting for few hours, I began doing squats. Which worsened my leg pain.

At just 23rd squat, my legs began to hurt like hell, and made cracking noises, but I kept going on. After my body forcefully made me fall over, I rested for a while, then finished the remaining 37 squats.

After, removing the fatigue, I stood up and looked over my rewards. I was surprised by the dungeon thing. I didn't know things like dungeons could exist in reality. Anyways, I put the key in an inventory. Yeah, I had an inventory. Now I felt like Steve from Minecraft.

Later, once I was home again, I thought of status in my mind. And it appeared.

[Status : STR : 10(+10)

INT : 38

AGI : 21

SEN : 56

VIT : 42

Title : The successor of the Shadow

Monarch. (+FearLess.)

The one who suffered.

(+HighSense) ]

The buff went to STR Huh? If going by game's logic, STR = STRENGTH, INT = INTELLIGENCE, AGI = AGILITY, SEN = SENSE, and, VIT = VITALITY. Then, there's the title making me fearless. Over all, it seems like a nice start.

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That day, at school I made sure that, I didn't get bullied, how? I didn't came near them at all, whenever they were around I would maintain my distance, the sense stat helped a lot in this. I would be able to sense them, whenever they would be in the radius of 30 meters.

Like this, I did the daily quest everyday, and my stats boosted significantly. I made sure to not meet any of them this time, and made sure to keep my distance. Like this, a month passed, I decided to give the dungeon a go.

After reaching the mall, I took out the key, all of a sudden a key slot appeared at the entrance. I inserted the key inside and twisted it. The doors opened, to reveal a shady terrain which definitely didn't look like a mall. I thought of going back, but was sucked inside it.

Then, the door disappeared. If I could represent my emotion right now it would just be : 🗿.

As I was staring at the non existent gate with a blank expression. I sensed something moving. Quickly turning over, I was met with blue eyes staring at me from the darkness, a monkey, who definitely didn't look friendly.

It lunged itself at me, barely dodging his leap, I turned around again, to find it gone. But, my senses warned me again, instinctively I moved back. Dodging the sharp claws of the monkey again. Though, I did brought a weapon with me, it's durability may be gone while fighting someone like this, who's claw can tear metal apart, as the things it slashed were metal pipes, which were leaking of water now.

[Insert the image of a metal base ball bat here! ]

After holding it tightly, I swung at his direction with full force, only to miss, and get my arm slashed. Blood gushed out, but I didn't waver, and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, and sensed him behind me. With a twist of my body, creating momentum, I bashed it's skull in. Killing it in process.

Huh? I healed up? Looks like, I can heal through leveling up...

...Oh well, the bat seems in a bad condition... Was the skull that thick and strong? Guess, time to switch, I threw the bat, and took out kitchen knives. And started posing while holding these daggers like an assassin.

[Insert Picture of kitchen knives here, if you want to. XD]

After doing that, I sensed something again. Quickly taking a stance, I was attacked by a green tiny thing. Which apparently had daggers on him, pretty sure, they are better than mine. After dodging a little here and there, I was injured again, but not from the one I was fighting against, but rather his comrade who ambushed me.

I soon found out, they were goblins, thanks to the system showing a text above their heads. The text was orange, I fell down on the ground, pretending to be dead, and waited for them to come.

The moment they did so, I stood up, and killed them both by slashing the knives in their neck. Glad, I sharpened my knives before coming here. But, once I tried taking out them, the blade broke and I was left with just a handle.

After that, I picked up their weapons, though small, they were much better than my own. Upon closer inspection, they looked like canines... Anyways, after that, I was met with a horde of them, as I leveled up, more of them came, then few hours later, monkeys were mixed amongst them.

It got harder, but by leveling up, I could see through the attacks more easily. Later, I was sitting on their corpses, and was at level 19. The door appeared again, and I went back from where I came.

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The bullies next day tried confronting me, but this time I had enough strength to back them off, but before doing that, I knew it could come to the worse ending again, so I, made a deal with them before they could hit me. The deal was that I would do their homework, in return they will leave me alone, and so they did. I wasn't bullied again.

Though it was a cowardly decision, it was the best one at the time. I had to remain patient after all. Once I hit level 40 through dungeons which I got later from the daily quests. I had enough strength to shatter boulders with my punch. I invested the spare stat points in my strength and agility mostly. Once that was done with, I stealthily, kidnapped my bullies one by one, and detained them at a warehouse which I made abandoned after killing the gangs taking up the space.

Using their mobiles, I called their parents separately, I made sure, that I called them from a very different location than the one I was using to hide them. I gave them my demands of wanting a huge ransom of 100000$, then sent them a separate location to put the money at. Later, I took the money in a flash, before the hidden police could react.

For them, it seemed like the bag disappeared in air. Which wasn't the case. After that, I went back to the place with over 1000000$ on me. I greeted my victims who were bleeding from the torture I was giving them for the last few days..

I had their heads wrapped in a sack of alive rats, which were biting on their face, after an hour of that, I shifted them to a chair tied up, with electric wires, which I would turn on for few minutes just before they die, after giving a good rest to them, I started to twist their fingers backwards, breaking their fingers in process.

Later, I would dip their bloodied hands inside salty oil. Then, stubbed the nailess fingers and toes with a wooden hammer over and over. Later, I would drench them in acid, though not excessive enough to melt their skin. I had to torture them alive after all. Once that was done, I broke their bones slowly, while making sure they are alive through potions from the shop of the system, which I gained access of after reaching level 30.

I continued this for weeks after the ransom was provided with. Then, I got bored, so I took off their blindfold, they all were too shocked to say anything after knowing who their kidnapper was. Breaking the silence, I spoke.

"I can let you leave, but you will have to win the game." Hope was enlightened in their dull eyes. They gave an expression as to ask what the game was.

"The game is simple, all you need to do is, kill each other, the one who survives gets to leave this place." I liked the expression on their faces, and my boredom flew away when I saw them trembling further. Then, after getting them untied, one of them stupidly tried attacking me, only to get his arm broken. After that, no-one tried to even think of coming at me. Thus, the game began, I took a seat, and started eating popcorn.

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Corpses lied on the ground, the color of the floor was tainted in red. Only one person remained standing, it was the girl which I thought was nice, but wasn't, and also participated in bullying me back in the original time line. She won, because she seduced her male friends.

Like a lizard, leaving it's tail behind, she used everything on her arsenal to be the one standing along with the last person she seduced, before he could do anything, she put an iron nail that she picked up from the ground, into the eye of his. As it bleed and he screamed, she took the wooden piece lying there, and bashed his head in multiple times, until she was sure he was dead, she kept on hitting it.

Once she knew, that she had won. She looked at me with expectant eyes. The sound of clapping echoed. "Didn't knew that you had it in yourself, Dianna." I got up from my comfortable chair, and headed towards her slowly. "Now, get me out of this place. I won the game, like you said. You have to take me out of this place! " Upon seeing her stupidity which I sort of missed, and laughing inside my mind.

I sat on my chair again, then pointing towards my feet. I said, "Won't you take your reward? Come here and lick my shoes, then you are free to go." As I finished saying this, she was glaring daggers at me, but knew, opposition would lead to her death, so she threw away her pride, and started licking my shoes. Heh, to think a proud, egoist, girl like her, would reach this state... I felt something missing and like I forgot something.

But, as she licked my shoes, I looked over and saw that, one more was alive. And was pretending to be dead. I could hear his heartbeat, and his breathing. So, I motioned him to get up, he knew, that I knew, that he was alive. So, he obediently got up, then stopping Dianna who was surprised. I gave another condition to leave this place.

"Both of you will get into an intercourse with each other, you both will be doing this till tomorrow. So better brace yourself. " Just the moment she heard this, she made a disgusted expression, tried to rebel but, my gaze shut her up. Soon, they began unclothing themselves, I got cardboard to make up a Bed, and told them to do it here.

Reluctantly, but they obeyed. Soon, only their sounds could be heard, I would point out what they were doing wrong, and they would comply. Both of them were virgin too after all. I made sure that both of them went rough on eachother, once it was morning they were beyond tired and dropped like flies. Though I gave them potions to make sure they didn't die... yet.

After that, I made them both, eat each other. That's correct, I forced them to eat each other, the one who survives gets to leave. By afternoon, the male one died. Dianna survived. Once again, I had to give it to her, the will she had was great. Though, she still isn't leaving alive. After giving her a potion to heal, and congratulating her, I let her leave.

Dianna thinking she could leave stepped out of the warehouse, only to see her pumping heart outside of her body. In my hands, was Dianna's heart, she fell down. And stepping on her head, I killed her quickly. Though she didn't deserve to die this quickly... I didn't have much of a choice, as I was found out by a police drone, though I destroyed it.

The footage was already sent over. The police would raid this place soon, so I stored the money in inventory, along the corpses, after all, I could torture them later in their afterlife. Quickly moving, I dashed towards my house at an inhuman speed.

Like this, my school life continued, though this time it was peaceful. I was acing my exams, my dad wasn't fired, my sister wasn't harassed, and most importantly, they were dead. Though, I planned to kill the parents too, I will wait till I reach level 50. I received a job type quest at level 40 after all.

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Years later, I had reached level 60. And, a new thing was my ability to revive those who are dead. Though, not like zombies... But rather, shadow like creatures, who would obey my orders without a question. They couldn't speak in the first place... Anyways, I got this ability after defeating a ridiculously powerful knight, an army of mages, assassins and soldiers. I couldn't use potions that time, so it was difficult, but not impossible, I had bought tons of different weapons so it helped a lot, then there was my unique skill.

, I was able to remain determined at an insane level, so even after my body refused to move due to the fatigue being at 100, I forced it with will. Injuring myself in the process, every movement burning my muscles. But, I refused to give up, and defeated them all. Although, after that, I passed out, woke up 3 days later.

It was hard convincing my family about what happened. But, I did it, by manipulating their memories, which definitely was an unpleasant experience for me.Yeah, I had the authority to manipulate memories now as well. After that, I chose the command word 'Arise', and got a shadow army. If I were to say, that I am strongest in this world, it wouldn't be a lie, because, my army could regenerate as well, while having an incredible defense, so, not to brag but, I could take over the world.

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Today, was a great day, because I tortured the parents of the bullies, then also made the corpses of my bullies my shadows. Ofcourse, I also didn't forget the interviewer, who later on was tortured as well. Anyways, it felt nice after doing all this... Though, an empty feeling rose inside me, I didn't know what to do next, with so much power... I could probably become the king of this world, but, after that?

"Glad to see you know this. I am going to go in an external slumber soon, while merging my consciousness with yours, though your personality will be in charge. And all of my power, army, and authority will be passed to you, slowly, but surely. I can now rest in peace, knowing, you will become the next Shadow Monarch. Just, promise me, you won't kill innocents. " I looked at my predecessor, and nodded, then bowed to him in respect, the things he had done, couldn't be achieved by me, even if I gave it my all, it was simply not possible, to fight a battle, nobody will know about, a battle which would be filled with loneliness and solitude. He, truly was the greatest Shadow Monarch.

"The Rulers, will show you the way to another world, which can handle your power. " Huh? Another world? Does he mean to say, I can't stay in this world? Oh well, I don't have much attachments to it anyways, I had some to my family, but after they threw me out in the original timeline, that was destroyed as well.

While, waiting for a while, a portal like thing appeared in front of me, where an angelic like being guided me towards. I was inside a city of some sort... A city in ruins?

The moment I was about to ask a question, the angel disappeared. I explored a bit, not by myself ofcourse. I had the shadows move around it to inspect it properly. Until, one of the connections was lost. All I saw from its eyes was, a bald guy with a cape on, staring at the shadow.

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Total words : 4828

I skipped a lot, otherwise it would be the same thing... Anyways, the First World is going to be one punch man as you can see. Drop some powerstones already, for bonus chapters.

50 Powerstones = 1 Bonus chapter.