[They are locked spatial rings that once belonged to dead hosts. After their hosts' deaths, the rings entered prolonged dormancy. It lasted for tens of thousands of years.]
Jenna's eyes widened slightly.
"Tens of thousands…?"
[Correct.]
[Prolonged dormancy caused self-shutdown. As a result, their signals were lost. And the system was unable to locate them.]
Jenna stared at the rings, her scalp tingling.
[Originally, the system possessed one hundred spatial rings. Including the core Spatial Dimensional Ring on your finger.]
[Due to an ancient spatial fracture, the rings were scattered. Host collected all hundred rings. And this action triggered forced system reactivation.]
"So… I wasn't being dragged around the market for no reason," she murmured, finally understanding what happened in the market.
[Correct.]
"So, what now?"
[The rings will now be absorbed back into the core ring.]
Jenna blinked again, still watching the 99 rings. They pulsed faintly, almost like they were excited to be together again.
[Would you like for the assimilation to begin now?]
"Yeah, I guess?"
A new interface shimmered into view before Jenna.
[Spatial ring assimilation Available
Artifacts Detected: 100
Estimated Time: 7 Hours
Proceed with assimilation?]
Jenna didn't hurry to accept immediately. She wanted to be sure she wasn't falling into a trap or a side effect she'd regret later.
She folded her arms, biting her lip. She glanced around the shimmering room, at the empty walls, the floating rings, the weightless quiet.
"…What's the downside of all of this?"
[During assimilation, binding, and future upgrades, space access will be temporarily locked. Host will be ejected. The process is irreversible. Magical artifacts used for fusion will be consumed and cannot be recovered.]
"In other words, for more upgrades, I have to keep feeding you magical artifacts?"
[Negative.]
[Only the ring fusion requires magical artifacts. The binding of the system and fused rings require nothing. It naturally comes after.]
[After that, antiques or beast cores are required for system leveling up and upgrades. Common objects yield minimal results. Host should prioritize rare-grade antiques and high-grade beast cores with mystical or energetic value. The better the antiques or cores, the greater the result.]
Jenna's lips twisted into a smirk. "So basically, museum heist or auction house raiding?"
[Correct.]
Jenna laughed, the sound bubbling out of her chest, sharp and excited. She already knew exactly where to get those items.
Her father's company—the one her uncle had stolen—had an auction house. And attached to it was a massive warehouse, packed wall to wall with high-end collectibles, antiques, and rare artifacts worth hundreds of millions and billions in auctions.
A treasure vault indeed.
As the evil thought crossed her mind, she grinned dubiously. Time has come for all who wronged her in the past to pay with interest.
"Ahem," she cleared her throat. "How do I bring things into the space?"
[Once ring fusion and system binding is complete, Host will be granted full system authority. Host may transfer items by touch, mental intent, or verbal command. Limitations will be removed binding.]
Jenna's eyes sparkled. "So no need to physically carry everything? I just think it, and—poof—it's inside?"
[Correct.]
[Inventory will be separated into categorized dimensions: General Storage, Perishables, Restricted, and Living Zone. Living organisms may be brought in—to be unlocked after System reaches Tier 3.]
Jenna's heart raced.
Living zone?
That meant she could take her siblings inside if needed. Her hands clenched into fists as excitement bobbed in her chest.
In her past life, she'd wandered ruins for scraps. Watched helplessly as her siblings wither away. Now, she was on the path to having her own dimension. A real safe zone.
"Alright then," she said, voice steady. "Initiate fusion and binding."
[Fusion Initiation Confirmed. Locking Host access… Transferring Artifact Energy… Commencing Spatial-System Assimilation.]
The 99 rings exploded into beams of light.
A shockwave rippled across the space as the walls quivered and the ground beneath her shook. The rings spiraled high, then shot downward—into the center of the room—vanishing into the floor one by one like falling stars diving into an ocean.
The space groaned.
And the next moment—
Everything vanished.
Jenna's body jolted backward as if yanked by unseen threads. Her breath caught, her surroundings evaporated, and she was violently flung—
Back onto her bed.
With a loud thump, she landed, sprawled across the mattress.
"…aww," she muttered, rubbing her back. "At least you could have sent me out in a decent manner!"
She sat up.
The ring on her finger was glowing very brightly.
She tapped it. "You there?"
Silence.
She tapped it again. "System?"
Still nothing.
The space was completely sealed off.
She was cut off.
"Great," she sighed, then glanced at the clock. 12:17 AM.
"Alright," she mumbled. "You take your time upgrading. I've got a list to write."
She grabbed her notebook again, flipped to a new page, and began writing down her to-do list…
— Hoarding supplies
She tapped the page with her pen and whispered: "Let's see who robs who this time around."
....
12:46 AM.
The prison alarm blared—wailing like a beast awakened too late.
By the time the first guard noticed the missing bodies and blood-slick corridors, it had already been thirty minutes since De Warden and his group had escaped.
And by 'escaped' it wasn't just slipping through shadows and fences.
They had slaughtered their way out.
Guards. Inmates. Dogs. Anyone who looked twice or breathed too loud. The security cameras weren't even destroyed. They recorded the gruesomeness killings, blood-splattered walls, boots crunching over skulls, and locked cells swinging wide open with broken hinges.
The guards who survived those thirty minutes? They'd locked themselves inside the panic rooms, waiting for reinforcement.