System Change - Chapter 4: Thomas

Ernest Quelt, the alchemist renowned for his unparalleled mastery of alchemy, has perished.But his death wasn't a noble sacrifice in battle, nor the result of a failed expedition—it was a betrayal. The very comrades he trusted most turned on him, driven by envy of his growing power.Yet fate wasn’t entirely cruel. With his final breath, Ernest's gaze fell upon the tube that contained his greatest achievement: a perfect artificial being known as the Homunculus.More than just a vessel resembling a human, this creation harbored the power of a catastrophic beast—one that had once nearly brought the world to ruin.

The age of darkness has arrived.

When the last prodigy level esper on Earth disappeared, Earth was in deep trouble of becoming another species’ colony. The ordinary Han, with his intelligence and hardworking character, was able to make a fortune after “accidentally” stepping into the world of dark net, later purchasing an esper power crystal that brought him the ultimate power that changed the fate of the universe.

Dark net is a subset of the Deep Web that is not only not indexed by traditional search engines, but that also requires special tools like specific proxy or authentication to gain access. Dark net is not restricted by any law or morals, so the dark net market has everything that is prohibited by the law. Drugs, slaves, firearms, uranium, bioweapons, rare animals, human testing, assassination, and the list goes on. During the year of 2075 on Earth, Han Lang logged into the largest hyperspace dark net market, and our story begins.

- Description from Novelupdates

A broken man who ended his own life finds himself reincarnated into the game he used to play. However, instead of becoming the protagonist or a powerful antagonist, fate places him in the role of a minor villain—a mere stepping stone for the protagonist in the game's first arc.