
SYSTEM ZERO: THE INFINITE GRIND
Makuochukwu Azubuike · Ongoing · 45.4k Words
Introduction
He woke up in hell.
No class. No skills. No tutorial. Just ash, a dead world, and a System notification blinking in his vision like a bad joke.
DESIGNATION: NULL
RECOMMENDATION: IMMEDIATE TERMINATION
In Aethon, your class is your worth. Your rank is your right to breathe. And a Null is not a person. A Null is a problem to be erased.
They sent hunters. Then a purge timer. Then something worse.
But Kane spent seven years building game systems for a living. He knows how engines work. He knows every system has a logic. Every rule has an edge. Every god has a backdoor.
He has no class. No rank. No name in their registry.
Good.
They can't kill what they can't see.
And Kane Cross is just getting started.
The System has run this world for a thousand years.
It has never met anyone like him.
Chapter 1
The first thing Kane felt was ash in his throat.
Not pain. Not confusion. Just ash, dry and metallic, coating the back of his tongue like burnt paper. He coughed. Then coughed again, harder, until his eyes watered and his ribs ached and he was on his hands and knees without knowing how he got there.
He stayed like that for a moment.
The last thing he remembered was his monitor. The studio. That specific shade of blue that fluorescent office lights turned white walls at 2:47 in the morning. His fingers on the keyboard. CTRL+S. The little spinning icon that meant the file was saving. Then nothing, now this.
He lifted his head slowly. The sky was the color of old concrete, grey from edge to edge, no sun, no clouds. Just flat dead light coming from everywhere at once. Ash stretched in every direction without a single tree or rock to break it.
Assess.
He got to his feet. Checked his hands. His legs. Everything worked. He was still in his office clothes, dark jeans and a grey hoodie, both of them dusted white. No bag. No phone. The air was cold and breathable but wrong, like the taste of metal sitting at the back of every breath.
He turned in a slow circle.
"Hello?" he said.
Nothing answered.
"Anyone?"
Wind. That was all.
Then something blinked in his vision. Not in front of him. In him, behind his eyes, the same place a headache lived. A box of text appeared, clean and crisp like a UI overlay dropped directly into his sight.
```
[SYSTEM ALERT]
SOUL REGISTRATION: DETECTED
CLASS ASSIGNMENT: PROCESSING...
CLASS ASSIGNMENT: ERROR
DESIGNATION: NULL
RECOMMENDATION: IMMEDIATE TERMINATION
```
Kane stared at it.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Okay, what is this."
He blinked. It stayed. He tried to close it the way he'd close a popup, looking for a button, an X, anything. Nothing happened. The text just sat there, pulsing once every few seconds like a slow heartbeat.
He read it four more times.
Immediate termination.
"Right," he said. "Great. Very helpful."
He tried to open something else. A menu. A character screen. Anything a game would give you at the start.
[SYSTEM]: No registered class detected. Menu access denied.
"Menu access denied." He repeated it out loud. "I'm dead and I don't even get a tutorial."
He laughed once, short and flat, then stopped because it didn't help.
He moved east, toward a sound he'd caught under the wind. Heavy. Rhythmic. Something with weight. He turned toward it and went still.
A creature came over a low rise in the ash. Six legs. Low to the ground. Skin grey and rough like cracked stone, about the size of a large dog. It moved with its head swung low, a blunt face with two slitted nostrils that flared as it walked.
Kane held his breath.
The creature's head swung toward him. Stopped. The nostrils flared twice.
Then it swung away and kept walking.
"You didn't see me," Kane said, very quietly. "Did you."
He watched it move toward a shallow ridge. Then he followed, staying back, keeping his steps as quiet as the ash allowed. He crested the ridge and stopped.
Three more creatures below. Moving in slow aimless patterns. And between them, flat on his back with his arms out, was a man.
Dead. Armored, leather and metal, mid thirties maybe. The creatures walked within a meter of him and paid him no attention at all.
Kane went down the ridge slowly. When he reached the body he crouched.
No wounds. No blood. The man looked almost peaceful.
Above the body, hanging in the air, was a floating panel. Kane leaned closer and read it.
```
[NAME: REDACTED]
[CLASS: NULL — PURGED]
[STATUS: TERMINATED BY REGISTERED USER]
```
"Terminated by registered user," Kane said softly.
He sat with that for a moment.
Not the creatures. Not an accident. Someone had come here and killed this man on purpose, and the reason was sitting right there in the panel. Null. Same word that was burned into Kane's own vision.
"Same as me," he said. "They killed you for the same reason they're going to try to kill me."
He looked at the man's face. The slack jaw. The half open eyes. He looked away.
There was a knife on the man's belt. Short blade, leather grip. Kane reached for it. His fingers closed around the handle.
Behind him, footsteps.
Slow. Deliberate. Someone who was not trying to be quiet because they didn't think they needed to be.
"Another Null."
The voice was flat. Professional. Kane stood and turned.
The figure stood twenty meters away. Light armor, clean and well fitted. A sword in his right hand, already drawn, held low and loose at his side. He was looking straight at Kane with an expression that was almost bored.
"The System flagged your arrival six minutes ago," the man said.
Kane looked at the knife in his hand. Then at the sword. "You can see me?"
"Obviously."
"The creatures couldn't."
The man tilted his head slightly. "What?"
"The creatures," Kane said, and took one slow step sideways. "They walked right past me. But you can see me fine."
"Stop moving."
"I'm just standing here." Kane took another step. "So the creatures run on the System and the System can't register me, but you can see me with your own eyes. That's interesting."
"I said stop moving." The man's voice hardened slightly, losing the bored edge. "You're Null. You have no class, no skills, no protection. Put the knife down."
"What happens if I don't?"
The man looked at him the way someone looked at a dog that was barking at them. Patient. Certain of the outcome. "Then this takes slightly longer. That's all."
Kane glanced at the dead man on the ground. At the panel floating above him. Terminated by registered user. He looked back at the hunter.
"You killed him too," Kane said.
Something shifted in the man's face. Not guilt. More like mild irritation at being made to discuss it. "He was Null. The System flags them for removal. I remove them." He raised his sword slightly. "It's not personal."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
"Okay." Kane took another step sideways. The nearest creature was four meters to the man's left, its blunt head swinging in a slow arc. "Can I ask you one more thing?"
"No."
"When you file your report after this," Kane said, "what do you write? What's the official language for killing someone whose only crime is that the System gave them the wrong label?"
The man's jaw tightened. "Null self-termination. Standard outcome." He stepped forward. Fifteen meters now. "Stop talking."
Kane watched the creature's head track the armored man as he moved.
Then he took one step left.
The creature's head stayed on the man.
Kane took another step.
The creature's head did not move.
"Stop." The man frowned, adjusting his angle. "Stand still."
"I'm not doing anything," Kane said.
But he was thinking. He was thinking very hard, very fast, about creatures that tracked registered entities and ignored unregistered ones, about a System that flagged Nulls for removal but couldn't seem to make the creatures do it automatically, about the specific gap between what a system was designed to do and what it actually did when you found the right angle.
Every system has a rule, he thought. Find the rule. Find the edge.
The man stepped forward again. Ten meters.
"Last warning," the man said.
Kane looked at the cluster of creatures behind him. Three of them now, sleeping in a shallow hollow, close together, right in the path between him and the ridge.
He looked at the man.
"Here's a question," Kane said. "Have you ever had a Null run toward the creatures instead of away from them?"
The man stopped.
For the first time, the boredom left his face completely.
Kane ran.
Last Chapters
#29 Chapter 29 Grim's Price
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#28 Chapter 28 Oria's Real Game
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#27 Chapter 27 The Null Absorption Second Skill
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#26 Chapter 26 Seran's Line
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#25 Chapter 25 Debug Eye, Full Resolution
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#24 Chapter 24 Under False Colors
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#23 Chapter 23 Grim's Calculation
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#22 Chapter 22 The Guild Master
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#21 Chapter 21 First Performance
Last Updated: 6/24/2026#20 Chapter 20 Ironhold Surface
Last Updated: 6/24/2026
You Might Like 😍
Underwater: The Silent Luna
It sounded like fate. Like rescue. Like the moment the universe finally chose her.
Even with the suspicion clinging to the proposal, Meadow let herself believe it. She stepped into the marriage blindly, hoping love would fill the quiet spaces of her mute, colourless life.
But the truth comes fast, and cruel.
The Alpha never asked for her. Never wanted her. Luna Amber arranged everything without his consent, driven by selfish motives Meadow couldn’t see until it was too late. What should have been tender and sacred becomes a cage, and Meadow is trapped in a nightmare she can’t wake from.
The Game of Claiming
A drunken bet becomes their private game: win the maid.
The rules?
Don’t let the others know you’re falling for her.
And never, ever let her leave.
But each brother plays differently—
The eldest buys her obedience.
The second steals her breath.
The third corners her in the dark.
The youngest ruins anyone who touches her.
Lila isn’t sure if she’s a player in their game… or the prize they’ll destroy each other to claim
Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother
"What is wrong with me?
Why does being near him make my skin feel too tight, like I’m wearing a sweater two sizes too small?
It’s just newness, I tell myself firmly.
He’s my boyfirend’s brother.
This is Tyler’s family.
I’m not going to let one cold stare undo that.
**
As a ballet dancer, My life looks perfect—scholarship, starring role, sweet boyfriend Tyler. Until Tyler shows his true colors and his older brother, Asher, comes home.
Asher is a Navy veteran with battle scars and zero patience. He calls me "princess" like it's an insult. I can't stand him.
When My ankle injury forces her to recover at the family lake house, I‘m stuck with both brothers. What starts as mutual hatred slowly turns into something forbidden.
I'm falling for my boyfriend's brother.
**
I hate girls like her.
Entitled.
Delicate.
And still—
Still.
The image of her standing in the doorway, clutching her cardigan tighter around her narrow shoulders, trying to smile through the awkwardness, won’t leave me.
Neither does the memory of Tyler. Leaving her here without a second thought.
I shouldn’t care.
I don’t care.
It’s not my problem if Tyler’s an idiot.
It’s not my business if some spoiled little princess has to walk home in the dark.
I’m not here to rescue anyone.
Especially not her.
Especially not someone like her.
She’s not my problem.
And I’ll make damn sure she never becomes one.
But when my eyes fell on her lips, I wanted her to be mine.
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Vengeance of the Forsaken Luna
"Bella." Ethan's tone shifted, taking on that warning edge I knew too well. "Faye is vulnerable right now. She's terrified you'll resent her, that this will divide the pack. The last thing she wants is for this baby to come between us."
"Then you shouldn't have done it." I met his eyes squarely, letting him see the ice in mine. "Go back to your son."
"For fuck's sake." He dragged a hand through his hair. "How many times—it was artificial insemination. They used my sperm, yes, but Faye and I never—"
Bella let out a cold snort. Such brazen lies. Her mate had an affair with his brother's partner, and his entire family helped force her out with nothing, all to make way for the mistress to take her rightful position. Poor fool—he thought she was just an unwanted adopted daughter, easy to dismiss and control. He never knew the computer genius he'd been searching for was his own Luna.
Since he'd tainted himself, Bella was done. She rejected him and reclaimed what was hers, rising to the top with help from Victor, who'd been secretly in love with her for years.
When Ethan tried winning her back: "You don't want our child growing up fatherless."
Bella smiled mockingly. "The child's father isn't you."
Glimmerdrop: The Crownwake Series
"This is your last chance to push me away."
At the fiercely hierarchical Haldorian Academy, magic-less commoner Hettie just wants to remain invisible. But Zadok, the academy's most untouchable elite, backs her into a corner she can't escape.
His fatal obsession sparks ruthless revenge: Dana, a high-tier wind mystic, turns paper into deadly blades during combat class, nearly blinding and disfiguring Hettie in a bloody attack .
The massive class divide and brutal bullying force Hettie to draw a line, demanding their romance be kept strictly underground .
That forever unattainable golden boy pinned her against the tree trunk, his scalding and aggressive kiss accompanied by a hopeless surrender: "You're going to be my doom ."
Worse still, Hettie discovers her parents’ dark secrets are dragging her into a deadly conspiracy of betrayal . Survival clashes with forbidden desire. In this deadly, cross-class temptation, whoever gives in first is doomed!
Cursed Beauty and her Three Alpha Mates
Cast out by her pack for being wolfless and plagued by uncontrollable heat, Maya has spent her life surviving humiliation in silence.
Fate drags her into the path of Kael Draven, the ruthless Lycan King who claims her… only to reject her.
But Kael is not the only Alpha bound to her.
Finn, her childhood best friend and the rising Alpha, loves her with a devotion so fierce, he spends four years locked away in the most ruthless dungeon only to keep her safe.
Xander, a rogue wolf who can make even Alphas bow to his will, has waited centuries for her to be reborn, and he has no intention of losing her again.
Three Alphas.
Three claims.
One cursed destiny.
They called her wolfless. They thought she was weak. But she is done hiding, and this time, she's rewriting the rules.
The Vampire Prince's Hybrid Bride
The Hockey Alpha's Fake Girlfriend
Then there’s Rafael. Dark. Untouchable. The boy everyone talks about but no one really knows. He should be the last person Vivienne gets close to, yet she can’t look away. He pulls her in with a kind of danger that feels both terrifying and safe, like he sees the parts of her no one else can.
But Rafael carries secrets—secrets that could destroy them both. And the closer Vivienne gets, the harder it is to tell if he’s her way out… or the reason she never escapes.
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
The Alpha's Stripper Mate
"What?" It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. I did not wait for him to answer me, I walked toward him.
"Dance on my lap."
My head screamed at me to turn around and run. But my whole body responded to his command.
"Yes, Alpha," I pulled my dress over my body, it dropped over my head and fell to the ground behind me. I was left in nothing but my matching bra and thong. My hands covered my chest on reflex.
"Let me see."
My hands dropped to my sides.
I lowered myself into his lap, facing him. His eyes peered into mine, and I could feel his hot breath fan my face. His dick responded to all my moves, hardening against my now-moist vagina. I swallowed hard, allowing my lips to part in a ragged breath. His hands trailed up to my waist.
"No touching."
At the tender age of eleven, JoJo Wyatt was forced to grow up far sooner than she should have. Born to a cruel father and a weak mother, she quickly realized she had to become the breadwinner for herself and her sister. Nothing else mattered to her, not even the hottest men. In fact, she despised them. After one horrific night, she swore never to have any contact with the male species again. That was, until she started working for him as his stripper.
Meanwhile, Alpha Lake Rush, thirty, was the most feared Alpha in the country. Burdened by his own share of life's struggles, he had learned only to be cruel and reckless, rejecting not one but two mates. But what happens when he discovers yet another mate, and she turns out to be his stripper?
The Hunter and The Hunted
Mihai’s hand slowly slides up my stomach, his fingers wrapping around my neck as he cuts of my ability to breathe, black spots clouding my vision, and yet, I am not afraid. I want more. I want everything that he can give to me.
He slowly inserts a third finger, the intense fullness that I feel teetering me over the edge of a cliff I cannot even see, and then he sucks and pulls at my clit. Sparks erupt throughout my body, the orgasm shaking my soul, and destroying what was left of my resistance.
She was the Daughter of a Hunter, he was one of the creatures that her family had sworn to destroy, what could possibly go wrong?
When their worlds collide, who will be left standing, will it be the hunter or the hunted, and which is which?












