♤ System Online ♤
I woke up from my sleep like I'd been kicked through a window, one world gone, this one already chewing me up.
No fade-in, no warning. Just pain in my lungs and grit in my throat.
The air hit sharp, like I was breathing in iron dust. Dry and sour. My mouth tasted like copper and rust. I lay face-down in sludge. Black soil clung to my arms, sticky like dried glue. Damp concrete pressed against my ribs, cracked and cold.
I blinked up.
Sky was broken. No sun, no stars. Just a bruise stretched overhead, deep violet clouds veined with dull red. A skyline of jagged towers loomed, half-swallowed by smog.
Some blinked with dying neon. Others were hollow shells. All of it, dead city, gutted sky felt like it was leaning over me.
I sat up slowly,my joints aching like I'd been worked over with a tire iron. My ribs clicked, one of them might've been cracked.
Flashes hit, alley walls, blood, a cold grip dragging me out of the dark. Then this, wherever this was.
A chime rang out. Too clean and too sharp. Like a blade dragging against glass.
Then came the voice, flat, clean and synthetic.
[System Initialization: Complete.]
[Welcome, User: Kuro.]
[Status: Demon King Candidate.
Class: Undetermined.]
[Warning: Trial Commencing. Survival Mandatory.]
The word "candidate" left a sour weight in my gut. Not a title, more like a threat.
Red text lit up in the air, flickering like a dying street sign:
[INVENTORY: Locked]
[SKILL TREE: Access Granted]
[STATS: Available]
[ABILITIES: 3 Locked — Unlock Requirements Pending]
My body tensed. Something sharp ran down my spine, like a wire being threaded through muscle. The info flooded in, not as thoughts, but as knowing. Like my bones remembered it.
No tutorial, no welcome gift. Just raw data hammered into me.
[HP: 80/100]
[MP: 30/30]
[STRENGTH: 9]
[DEXTERITY: 11]
[VITALITY: 8]
[PERCEPTION: 10]
[WILLPOWER: 13]
[LUCK: ???]
I didn't know what the numbers meant. Didn't need to, they felt like mine. Like they'd always been stitched inside me, waiting to be read.
Another ping.
[Starter Abilities Identified:]
[Shadow Thread]
[Blink Step]
[Dark Vision]
[Status: Locked]
[Unlock Trigger: Survive Initial Trial]
Of course, no freebies. Just survive.
I pushed to my feet, my knees popped like a malt can being opened... My hands shook.
A groan rumbled through the city, distant and low, like metal scraping metal, like buildings begging to fall. It wasn't an animal sound, it was heavier and sounded mechanical.
I exhaled, slowly. My breath fogged, but it wasn't cold. The air was thick and sour, like grief hanging from the rooftops.
I checked my arms, no wounds. But I remembered the blood. The alley, the silence, my end.
"This is real," I muttered. My voice barely made a sound. Like the city didn't care what I had to say.
[Trial Commencing in 00:59]
[You must reach the Waypoint before expiration.]
[Non-compliance results in system-initiated purge.]
"Purge?" I said but still no answer.
I scanned the street, cracked roads, overturned cars fused into concrete. Trash clung to rusted railings. The sky flickered with artificial lightning, but no rain came. Nothing moved.
I walked because standing still felt like agreeing to die.
The city pressed down, shadows creeping across broken glass and bent metal. Some of them twitched when I blinked while others stood still when I didn't.
Then I heard something, footsteps. Not mine.
I ducked behind a split pillar, the concrete crumbling under my touch.
A figure stumbled from a smashed doorway. Clothes torn, skin like wet wax, it's jaw hung loose. One eye gone, the other glowed orange, twitching in its socket.
The System buzzed.
[Enemy Identified: Hollow Spawn → Rank F]
[Hostile. Minimal Intelligence. Aggressive on sight.]
It froze for a while, then snapped toward me.
It ran.
I didn't think, just bolted. Boots slapping against the pavement, rusted rebar scraped my leg as I cut through an alley. Trash bags burst, the thing shrieked behind me like a drill through bone.
[00:27]
I dove behind a fallen beam, reached down, my fingers found something.
A shard of glass. Jagged, greasy. It was better than nothing.
It lunged forward, I screamed and drove the glass up into its neck. No blood, just black fluid that hissed against my skin. It clawed, jaw clicking like broken teeth.
I stabbed again, and again until it stopped moving.
I knelt there, arms shaking, knuckles raw. Tar-like blood soaked my sleeves. It smelled like hot metal and tooth decay.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[Trial Progress: 1/3]
[Abilities Unlocked (Partial Sync):]
[Dark Vision – Passive: Vision adapts to darkness. Active range: 30 meters.]
My sight shifted, the shadows peeled back like old paint. The street sharpened, broken walls, shattered glass. Everything looked more vivid, but frozen.. Like the world had lost warmth just to show me its real face.
Another shriek sounded in, it was closer.
[00:14]
I ran again.
Pavement crumbled my underfoot. The ground pitched, I jumped a gap, missed the landing, skidded into gravel but I didn't stop.
Ahead, a spire. A tower jutting from the street, coated in cables and slick with grime. Violet fire circled it like a slow pulse. It buzzed, not loud, but steady.
The waypoint.
I didn't hesitate, I dove for it.
[00:01]
Time locked.
The wind froze, trash hovered in midair. The flames held their shape like statues.
[Trial Cleared.]
[Sync Progress: 38%]
[Abilities Unlocked:]
[Blink Step → Active: Short-range teleport (5m). Cooldown: 8 sec.]
[Shadow Thread → Passive: Enables manipulation of nearby shadows (limited). Requires line of sight.]
I collapsed. My heart was pounding weirdly, too fast, too slow. Out of sync with the world.
I didn't feel powerful, didn't feel chosen.
I felt like I was still bleeding, even if there were no wounds.
Then the chime came again.
[Welcome to the Realm of Purgatorio.]
[From here forward, your choices echo.]
[Rise, Demon King Candidate.]
I didn't move.
Above me, the sky twisted. Colors I didn't know the names for bled into each other like bruises spreading under skin.
I should've felt something relief, fear or purpose.
Instead, I felt like I'd already died.
And the city was waiting to see what kind of monster came back.