Everything... is dark.
Black. Empty. Absolute silence.
No cold. No heat. No pain. No peace.No life... no death.
Just... nothing.
But in the middle of this nothing, one thing still insists on existing.My consciousness.And I don't even know if I should be thankful for it... or tell it to go screw itself.
"...What... happened...?"My own voice echoes in my head, broken, weak—barely a whisper from me to myself.
Then it comes...The sound.Faint at first, way in the distance, like someone slowly turning up the volume.
Screams.Twisting metal.Shattering glass.Fire... lots of fire.The smell of burning flesh. The heat crawling up my skin, taking my arms, my face, my hair...
And finally...The sound of the plane tearing apart midair, engulfed in flames.The sound of death.
"Oh... right. I died."I say it like someone just remembered they left the stove on.
And it's funny, isn't it?They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes.Lies.What actually flashes is a full playlist of regrets, mistakes, and... inside jokes only you understand.
Well...If I'm gonna be embarrassed even after death... bring it on.
"Who is Ethan Carter?"Honestly? Nothing special. I was never the strongest, never the hottest, never the smartest.Since I can remember... I was the guy in the back of the classroom.
You know that weird kid who gets bullied at school, mocked for literally anything—his hair, his clothes, the way he walks?Yeah. That's me.
Childhood?Worse than an indie movie.Bullying? Check.Loneliness? Check.Emotionally absent parents? Check.
And when I thought things might get better... came the teenage years.Where, on top of bullying, you also unlock: social anxiety, existential dread, and emotional debt.
And then she came along.The most broken girl I've ever met.My first (and only) girlfriend.Depressed, dark, a bottomless pit of pain and fear that she hid behind a smile only I seemed to realize was fake.
I spent years trying to save her.Little did I know... I needed saving too.
Then came adulthood.And man, if teenage years were bad, adulthood was like life's hardcore mode.
Three jobs.Bills to pay.And one stupid promise I made to myself:
"If I'm gonna live a shitty life, then I'll at least write a story that makes sense."
That's how it was born...
Chaosbound.My magnum opus.My masterpiece. My escape. My refuge.
A webnovel that—modesty aside—was way more interesting than anything I called "real life."
The plot?Simple... and complex.
A modern world, much like ours...But ruled by superhumans.
Factions. Empires. Academies. Heroes. Villains. Gods.A world where the strongest make the rules.
And at the center of the madness... him.The Prophesied Hero.
A boy who lost everything far too young.His family? Murdered.His dreams? Shattered.
But then... fate looked at him and, for the first time, smiled.The boy was found by none other than Ikaris, one of the Three Emperors, a living legend, the man who could tear the sky and crush mountains with his bare hands.
Ikaris saw something in him. Something rare. Something... unbreakable.And decided to shape him. Train him. Transform him.
"If no one's gonna protect you, then learn to protect yourself... until the whole world fears the sound of your footsteps." — that's what Ikaris said.
And so, he grew.From a broken orphan... to a monster dressed as a hero.
The story was supposed to begin at the Sullivan Academy Entrance Exam.The biggest superhuman school in the world.The birthplace of future emperors, underworld kings, faction leaders, or... the next generation of heroes.
Chaos, blood, and glory.That was Sullivan's unofficial motto.
And me...?I was the guy who wrote all of it.Every detail.Every arc.Every character.Every death.
Until...Until the universe decided to play a cosmic joke on me.
And here I am.In the dark.No body.No ground beneath me.No future.
"...wait." My inner voice trembles. "This is... this is..."
Light.A blinding flash tears through the darkness.
My eyes open—or I think they open.And what I see freezes my soul.
The fist.Someone's fist. Coming straight at my face.Charged with electricity, sparks dancing in the air, like the sky itself decided to crash down on me.
And just before it hits me, only one thought flashes through my mind:
"WHAT THE FU—"
[END OF PROLOGUE]