"Three days. That's how long you have to live. Or rewrite death itself."— The Bone Core Simulation AI
The moment Lilavai, the Ghost Queen, bound herself to me, everything changed.
The world got quieter.
More dangerous.
More alive.
In the Grove's deepest sanctum, I sat cross-legged inside a spinning ring of etched bone circuits, each powered by blood, ghostlight, and fragments of hacked cultivation code.
Three days before the Heaven-Eye Inquisition found us.
Three days before I was either sanctified or slaughtered.
SYSTEM CORE WARNING:Incoming Celestial Scan DetectedStealth Protocols at 42% IntegrityTime Until Trace Lock: 72 Hours, 00 Minutes, 04 Seconds
Initiate Bloodline Overdrive Sequence?[Y/N]
I typed [Y] with my mind.
Immediately, my core temperature spiked.
Vess and Seris circled me from opposite sides of the ritual chamber. Lilavai, the Wraith Queen, stood at my back, humming a lament from her ancient dynasty, binding spirit wards with flicks of her fingers.
Each woman held a different piece of the puzzle.
Each one... dangerous in her own way.
[VESS: CODE SUPPORT SPECIALIST | SILENT KILLER]
Vess's fingers worked lightning-fast on her alchemy terminal, rerouting ghost enzyme sequences into the circulation lines carved through the floor.
"I've never cross-wired three cultivation paths at once," she muttered. "You're insane."
"Correction," I said. "I'm desperate."
[SERIS: SWORD HEIR | HACKED BLOODLINE CARRIER]
Seris sharpened her soulblade in silence. Her white hair draped over one eye, hiding the storm inside her.
"Do this wrong," she said, "and your organs turn into spirit-mush. One breath from Heaven's Hounds, and we're ash."
"Do it right," I replied, "and we break the sky."
[LILAVAI: GHOST QUEEN | BOUND SOUL CONSORT]
Lilavai caressed the back of my neck. Cold fingers. Burning power.
Her kiss was still in my bloodstream.
"Your core is shifting," she whispered. "You're becoming something not born of clan or cult... something rewritten."
They called it madness. I called it the future.
The Bloodline Overdrive Protocol wasn't just theory anymore.
It was happening.
SYSTEM ALERT: HACKER CORE REACTIVATINGInitiating Forbidden Merge Layer 7
Target Script: Dragon Vein Lineage (Heaven-Tier)Status: Locked by Celestial FirewallCrack Attempt: 01%... 05%... 11%
Injecting Ghost Queen's Wraith Enzyme…
Crack Success Rate: 42%ERROR: Emotional Contamination Detected
Suddenly, Lilavai gasped behind me.
Her form flickered.
"What's wrong?" Seris stepped forward.
"She's bleeding into the code," Vess said. "Her soul's fusing deeper than the merge protocol allows."
"I told you this would happen," Seris hissed. "We're doing too much too fast!"
"No," I whispered. "This is the only way."
I stood up.
Stripped to the waist, my body pulsed with runes burned into flesh, inked with dragonbone dust and Ghost Queen tears.
Three bloodline patterns spun around me in orbit:
The Hacked Orphan Line – Data-native Adaptation
The Phantom Consort Line – Spirit-Bound Projection
The Dragon Vein Line – Locked, Cracked, Corrupted
The simulation room exploded into shifting illusion. Sky became code. Ground dissolved into possibility.
We were in the Bone Core Simulation now.
Here, the impossible could be tested.
Here, death was feedback.
Here, I could rewrite myself.
[BONE CORE SIMULATION – RUNNING TRAINING SCENARIO #17: BLOOD GOD ASCENSION]
Objective: Survive Heaven Inquisitor Assault for 300 secondsReward: Full Dragon Vein IntegrationPenalty: Complete Core Collapse / Death
Begin.
Sky shattered.
Three figures descended like meteorites:
One with a spear forged from thunder.
One cloaked in priestlight, wielding golden judgment.
One… a girl in black chains, crying and laughing at once.
The Heaven-Eye Inquisitors.
I ran forward.
Not away.
FORWARD.
My hacked soul threads lashed out, wrapping code around their movements.
Lilavai fused with my back, arms extended, casting echo chains into the void.
Vess triggered phantom bombs from her terminal, sending implosive logic loops into the ground.
Seris leapt into the air, her blade singing with anti-god intent.
SYSTEM UPDATE:Trio Combat Route ActiveBonus Multiplier: Reader Engagement +7.2xRomantic Threat Level: 89%Jealousy Points Gained: [Seris +12] [Vess +9] [Lilavai +15]
The simulation shook as the Inquisitors' attacks landed.
Lightning ripped across my ribs. One eye bled black data. But I stayed standing.
Because something was happening.
Inside.
The dragon script was finishing its install.
My hacked code, my grief-forged lineage, my ghost bond...
It was all melting together.
BLOODLINE MERGE COMPLETENew Core Established:✧ Phantom Dragon Code: Kairos Line ✧
Cultivation Stage Ascended:— Transcendent Hacker Realm, Level 1
New Abilities Unlocked:– Ghostfire Wings– Bloodline Rewrite (Tier 1 Targets)– Wraith-Kiss Resurrection– Forbidden Soul-Root Duplication
New Romance Route: "To Love a Hacker-God" – Activated
The Inquisitors screamed.
Too late.
I raised my hand—and burned them out of existence with Ghostfire Breath.
A fusion of memory, betrayal, and rewritten blood.
They vanished.
Simulation cleared.
SUCCESS
Dragon Vein Lineage: Integrated
Phantom Sovereign Realm: Stabilized
Hack Power Multiplier: x9
Reader Retention Rate: PROJECTED SPIKEMonetization Tier: GODLIKE
The world returned.
I collapsed to my knees, steaming with power, smoke rising from the ritual lines on the floor.
The girls ran to me at once.
Lilavai cradled my head in her lap, whispering a ghost lullaby.
Vess scanned my vitals with one hand, the other clutching her blood-coded alchemy terminal.
Seris pressed a wet cloth to my forehead, trying not to let her relief show.
"Next time," she muttered, "warn us before you almost die again."
"I didn't almost die."
I looked up at them, eyes glowing with three merged codes.
"I almost became a god."