Burn, Embers!

“They call me Ember. They say all we deserve is to scrape by in the apocalypse, until my life becomes more valuable than a nuclear bomb.”

At the moment Fang Ji presses down on the syringe for the fifth time, he watches drops of blood fall through the countdown hourglass and suddenly bursts out laughing.

This world has gone mad. Three years ago, a mysterious red light divided humanity into five ranks. The Starbreakers, who can crush tanks with their bare hands, sit at the top of the pyramid. We Embers, a people worth less than a lighter, have to pay the Fourth Race an air tax just to breathe.

But when I ignite the first flame that burns away my life to save my sister, a notification from the Madman System spreads across the entire night sky:

[Burn 24 hours of lifespan to multiply your current combat power by 100]

[Remaining lifespan: 71 hours]

So, in an abandoned hospital, I wield a molten great axe bought with my own lifespan and cleave through the Fourth Race's armored vehicle, watching its metal melt and bloom like fireworks in the downpour.

At the black market, I trade the memory of my seventh birthday for painkillers. The beaked merchant polishes his monocle and chuckles: “Your sister's genetic disease will take ten thousand hours of your life, dear customer.”

And when a Starbreaker's gravity field crushes three of my ribs, a new option appears in the System's dying message:

[Pawn “Fear” to unlock Godslayer Mode]

Now every one of my tormentors is running for their life. At last, they understand:

The moment an Ember burns out is the dawn of the true apocalypse.