Jack broke out of his cocoon...

He stared at his hands in awe of the power that ran within his flesh and blood.

He felt he could level a mountain with a single punch!

This level of physical might was something he had yearned for most of his life.

He was a martial arts enthusiast, so talented he could pick up the arts of various martial schools in a single try.

People always lamented that he was born in the wrong era. If he had been born before the arrival of guns and nukes, he would have been a force to be reckoned with for sure.

But the reality was that no matter how strong his human body became, it could never rival an armored tank. Heck, a single military-grade drone would be enough to take him down.

He had lived his life with stubbornness and desperation. The art he loved so much was useless, but at the same time he never wanted to let it go.

Jack was a bull-headed individual, adverse to utilizing borrowed power.

In his eyes, any weapon that didn’t rely on the wielder’s output to be dangerous was borrowed power — and that disgusted him.

He never took armed training in school, causing him to fail repeatedly. But Jack didn’t care. He saw guns as beneath him.

Everyone saw him as a mad genius, a fool who would ruin his life clinging to a stupid conviction.

After all, could even the strongest martial artist survive a bullet to the head?

Guns were the great equalizer of the human race.

With their existence, physical might hardly mattered. Buff men? Frail women? All the same in the eyes of a revolver.

They bled all the same and died all the same. All you needed was distance and aim, and even the strongest of men would be brought to their knees.

But Jack foolishly believed he could surpass that.

’Foolish!’

A grin crept onto Jack’s lips. Even if it took the apocalypse to make it happen, he had reached his goal in the end.

His muscles now thrummed with enough potential power to smash a military-grade armored tank to tatters.

His skin was so tough even sniper calibers would only cause flesh wounds.

Suddenly the ground began to rumble...

A dense cloud of dust rose from the earth in the distance. Rows and rows of crimson eyes pierced through the haze, locked on him. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Jack didn’t waste time summoning a Shackled Rank armor. He didn’t like the idea of fighting naked.

Eerie glyphs across his skin simmered with obsidian light. His eyes flickered with expectation as his skill activated in full throttle.

Jack didn’t have a gene lineage, but according to the system his family line descended from a powerful subspecies of humans.

Humanity’s subspecies: Titan-grade lifeforms called the Nephilim.

They were a breed of humans that existed in the annals of lost history — humans banished from the surface of the planet, cast into its depths.

Forced to live and adapt in a lightless environment and bone-crushing gravity.

Human genes were biological reactors, constantly pushing humans to evolve to greater heights to survive their environment. So these humans evolved, adapted, and thrived.

Their bones grew as dense as steel to resist the gravity. Their frames grew as large as mountains.

They embodied the classification of a Titan-grade lifeform, their bodies vast and towering.

A single stomp from them was enough to trample cities.

For a creature that big, how exaggerated could a single stat point of strength be?

How much power could they exert with that single strength stat point compared to a normal 1.8-meter-tall human?

And that was the power Jack’s gene skill could harness — the power of a Royal-grade Titan lifeform.

To put it into perspective, an Elite-grade Shackled Rank Titan lifeform would still overwhelm Seth at his peak Shackled Rank easily.

A single punch from them would be enough to crush his flesh and grind his bones.

And Jack was harnessing the power of a Royal-grade Titan. On paper, he was stronger than any of his teammates.

But reality was limiting. Titans could unleash such power because their bodies could bear the recoil of their own strength.

Trying to force such overwhelming strength into Jack’s current body would quickly bloat and explode him.

Hence his powers were limiting. He was only able to take what he could handle.

His frame ballooned, his skin taking a darker hue. His sclera turned golden and his pupils black as night.

Shadows billowed from Jack’s frame as he absorbed what he could from the Titan’s shadow.

But still...

Even with an Awakened Rank body, his physique couldn’t even handle 40% of the Titan’s shadow.

How strong was a Titan? Even less than forty percent was enough.

His body leaned forward as he burst into a sprint toward the hoard, each step provoking a resounding rumble.

Seeing such a massive colossus barreling toward them, the Viagra Bulls grew more incensed. Steam shot out of their nostrils as their gallops cracked up in gear.

Mooooooooooo!

Their defiant cries resounded through the night skies, but their fates held no suspense.

Jack’s hand swung back, his palm widened, shadows writhed as he swung forward, throwing his weight behind the attack.

The palm raced through the wind, reducing everything in his reach into bloody eruptions.

The system’s whispers of victory popped up in his sight, but they were all ignored.

He could feel his strength rising, enabling him to feed more on the Titan’s shadow.

Jack felt exhilaration. As a taciturn type of person, he barely spoke or thought much.

His most consistent method of communication was through bloody combat!

And this was the only way Jack expressed himself to the world.

His encompassing fists barreled through the air, his mighty legs stomped. Each strike from him left swaths of bloody paste and crumpled corpses.

The hoard stood no chance!

Even the terrain cracked and heaved in his wake. Earth parted, trees fell, areas sank — the entire plain was in chaos.

Loud booms and bangs echoed in the air.

The second wave came, and though they seemed tougher, they were all smashed nonetheless.

Each kill made Jack’s eyes shine brighter, his heart pump harder, his will spill brighter.

The mass of shadow continued to wreak chaos... until—

Booooooom!

The earth shook as a deafening shockwave rippled through the air, sending Jack’s frame flying.

He gathered himself off the ground and stared at the horizon in awe, reeling from shock.

A gigantic purple mushroom cloud towered into the skies.

As a civilian of modern humanity, how could Jack not recognize this sight?

The ever-silent Jack hissed in shock. "Who the fuck brought a nuke to the Origin Realm?"

But quickly he felt the familiar energy wafting from the air.

His eyes lit up. "Seth?"

Contrary to Seth’s beliefs, Jack preferred for the team to fight as a cohesive whole.

Not because he wanted to benefit from Seth’s strength, but because he felt they’d have a better chance of overcoming the hoard that way.

After all, these hoards would come in stronger waves. And what would happen pretty soon was that they would be overwhelmed in strength and in numbers.

Even with the unparalleled potential of the human race, they needed to live to evolve. If they weren’t given room to breathe, even Seth would fall...

Jack made a silent calculation in his mind, quickly determining the most possible direction Seth would be in.

He didn’t waste time. His form deflated, going back to his normal height, but the billows of shadows didn’t wane.

He funneled the power of the Titan’s shadow into speed. His calves bulged as he got ready.

His weight bore down on the earth as

the ground cracked and groaned.

Then with a deafening heave, he burst forth, barreling forward with brutish might that destroyed all obstacles in his way...