S Ranked Reincarnation: My Infinite Leveling System-Chapter 34: System Resolved

Branches whipped at Ning Que’s face, stinging his cheeks as he vaulted over a fallen, moss-covered log. His lungs burned, a raw fire that matched the frustration simmering in his gut.

Behind him, he could hear the heavy, panicked breathing of the others, punctuated by the sharp, irritated commands of their self-appointed leader.

"Move! Are your legs made of lead?" Lian Zhen snapped, her voice cutting through the sounds of their flight. She spun on her heel, her gaze sweeping over them, her perfectly braided hair not daring to come loose. "The alert wasn’t a suggestion. It was a promise. Pick up the pace!"

Linx, his face pale and beaded with sweat, glanced down at the flickering device strapped to his wrist.

"She’s right. They’re closing. Fast. Their heat signatures are... elite. Amplified." He clenched his teeth, the muscles in his jaw tight knots of anxiety. "This isn’t a standard patrol."

Aeris and Viera flanked Ning, their movements fluid but their expressions strained. They stayed close, a silent, protective bubble around the one person who should have been leading the charge.

But Ning’s focus was turned inward, screaming into a void that refused to answer. The System, his constant companion, his source of power, was a dead, silent chasm in his mind. No pings.

No status screens. No spectral blade shimmering into existence at his will. He was just a boy running through a forest, and the sheer, infuriating powerlessness of it was a poison seeping into his bones.

Lian Zhen skidded to a halt before the skeletal remains of an old outpost, its stone walls choked with vines and bleached by years of mana fallout.

"In here. Now."

They scrambled inside, pressing their backs against the crumbling, damp stone. For a moment, the only sound was their ragged breathing echoing in the enclosed space.

Viera was the first to break the silence, pushing herself away from the wall.

"This is insane. We can’t keep this up. We need to split." Her eyes darted between them, wide with a desperate sort of logic. "We’re a lumbering target, all five of us. They’re after him." She jabbed a thumb towards Ning. "The rest of us can create diversions. Draw their fire in different directions. It’s the only way one of us—he—might get through."

Lian Zhen let out a short, sharp laugh that held no humor. It was the sound of grinding metal. She crossed her arms, her glaive leaning against the wall beside her, a dormant threat.

"Split up? Brilliant plan. Truly inspired." Her voice dripped with sarcasm. "And what, pray tell, is your grand strategy for the boy with a busted System? We send him off on his own, and he trips over a root and gets a Guild bolt through the skull before he can even blink. He wouldn’t last ten minutes." She took a step closer to Viera, her eyes narrowing.

"Let’s be clear. You’re not suggesting a tactical retreat. You’re suggesting we hand him to Tao on a silver platter, gift-wrapped and ready for dissection. Is that what you want?"

Linx, who had been silently wiping down his device, looked up. His usual quiet demeanor was gone, replaced by a grim certainty.

"Viera, she’s right. It’s too late for that." His voice was low, heavy. "That signal flare wasn’t just a marker for Ning. They saw all of us. We ran together. In their logs, we’re a single entity now. The Hunter’s Guild has a simple, brutal doctrine for situations like this: guilt by association." He met each of their gazes. "They’re not just coming for Ning anymore. They’re coming for all of us."

The phrase ’guilt by association’ hung in the air, thick and suffocating.

Ning finally looked up from the floor, the dirt and grime on his face failing to hide the exhaustion in his eyes.

"This is my fault," he said, his voice raspy. "All of it. You shouldn’t have to carry this weight. You shouldn’t have to die for my mistakes."

A sharp sting on his arm made him flinch. Aeris stood over him, her fist still raised from the light, but meaningful, punch. Her expression was a complex mixture of anger and concern.

"Then stop acting like a martyr and do something about it," she said, her voice tight with emotion. "Stop talking like you’re already a ghost. We’re not carrying your weight, you idiot, we’re watching your back. So get your head in the game and level up already. Reclaim something. Do anything other than wallowing in this pit you’ve dug for yourself."

The outpost fell silent again, the tension a palpable thing, sharp and brittle. Ning squeezed his eyes shut, his hands balling into fists. He focused, pushing his will into the silent emptiness inside him, searching for a spark, a flicker, a single byte of data. He begged, pleaded with the void to answer.

Nothing.

He opened his eyes, a low growl of frustration escaping his throat. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Linx froze. His head snapped up, his eyes wide.

"Incoming."

The word was a barely audible whisper, yet it screamed through the stillness. Everyone went rigid. A heartbeat passed. Then another.

The clearing outside the outpost erupted.

It wasn’t a charge; it was an execution. Figures in sleek, black combat gear materialized from the trees, their faces obscured by mana-visor helms that glowed with an eerie, predatory light.

They moved with a chilling, synchronized precision, weapons raised. These weren’t the regular grunts of the Guild. These were Tao’s personal butchers. Kill-trained. Coded for silence and efficiency.

There were no warnings. No calls for surrender.

They opened fire.

Beams of condensed mana ripped through the air, shearing stone from the outpost walls. The group scattered, instinct taking over. Lian Zhen was a blur of motion, the first to retaliate.

With a guttural cry that was more excitement than fear, she blinked forward, her body phasing through a hail of energy bolts, and crashed into their front line.

Her glaive became a whirlwind of slicing, shimmering steel, cleaving through armor and flesh with vicious, beautiful precision.

"Finally!" she roared, her face alight with a joyful, terrifying ferocity as she spun, decapitating one soldier and disemboweling another in a single, fluid arc. "Something worth slicing!"

Viera and Aeris moved in her wake, a deadly dance of support. Viera’s daggers flashed, finding gaps in armor, while Aeris laid down suppressing fire with energy pulses from her palms.

Linx was the tactical mind, darting between crumbling pillars, deploying micro-traps that erupted in nets of crackling electricity or disorienting sonic bursts, redirecting enemy fire and sowing chaos in their organized ranks.

Ning stood at the center of the battle, shaking with anger. He tried to summon his weapon, but it was gone. His connection to the System, the thing that gave him power, was lost.

His eyes caught a pulse rifle near a fallen enemy. It was heavy and awkward, nothing like his usual weapon, but it was better than nothing. He grabbed it and started firing, relying only on instinct.

The fight was getting harder. For every enemy Lian Zhen took down, more appeared. She was getting tired. Tao’s forces weren’t rushing in—they had a plan, slowly pushing the group into a corner, making escape impossible.

Then, something changed in the air. It wasn’t a breeze, but the atmosphere itself felt heavy, like it was harder to breathe. The sounds of the battle faded, and everyone—friend or foe—turned toward the trees.

A man stepped out from the shadows. He was tall and dressed in black and gold, with glowing eyes. He walked calmly toward the group, clapping slowly and mockingly. His voice was smooth, filled with amusement.

"Well done," he said. "A good effort. But honestly..." He looked at Ning with a piercing stare. "I expected more from the so-called ’Reclaimer.’"

Ning felt something was off about this man. He wasn’t human, but not a monster either. He felt like something from the unstable chaos they were trying to escape.

The stranger spoke again, mocking Ning.

"You’re stuck. No blade. No powers. Just broken." He smiled cruelly. "You’re nothing."

Ning asked, "Who are you?"

The man raised his hand to silence him.

"You’ll find out soon enough... if you survive."

With a wave of his hand, the man released a wave of dark energy, forcing everyone to step back. Lian Zhen demanded, "Who are you?" But the man just smiled.

"Call me a preview," he said. "A glimpse of what’s coming."

The man’s gaze focused on Ning, and in a brief moment, Ning saw something strange behind him—a crack in space itself. The stranger closed the distance between them, leaned in close, and whispered.

"The System is not just code. It’s a language. And I can speak it, too." Then, in the blink of an eye, he vanished.

The battlefield fell silent. Everyone stared at Ning, who stood frozen, staring at the spot where the man had been.

Then—

A small, almost silent "ping" echoed in Ning’s mind.

The air around him shimmered, and a screen appeared before his eyes:

[SYSTEM REBOOTING...]

[ERROR 734 RESOLVED... CORE INTEGRITY RESTORED]

[NEW PATHWAY DETECTED...]

[CORE ASCENSION ROUTE: DETECTED]

And finally:

[WELCOME BACK, USER: NING QUE.]