Chapter 1
Nox walked into class knowing today would suck. It always did.
His uniform was completely trashed. Faded blue patches covered the fabric where the color had given up trying, and old stains had basically become part of the design at this point. He scrubbed the thing every night until his knuckles went raw and bleeding, but it didn't matter. The dirt had decided this was home now, a permanent reminder that his life was garbage.
After a few years of this, something inside him had just shut off. It was easier not to feel anything, easier to just exist and wait for each day to end.
He slid into his usual desk in the back, trying to shrink into the cheap wooden chair. Up front, Ms. Joy was droning on about history or math or something equally pointless. He wasn't listening. He was too busy feeling the eyes on him. He could always feel them. The whispers were his own personal background music, the soundtrack to his pathetic existence.
"Look at him," someone snickered a few rows over. "Dude smells like he sleeps in a dumpster."
"Probably does," another voice added, way louder than necessary.
Nox kept his eyes glued to his textbook, letting the words blur together into meaningless shapes. 'Heard it all before. Same jokes, same voices, same everything.'
Then Mark showed up.
Captain of the football team, permanent smirk attached to his face, and the main character in the daily show called "Making Nox's Life Hell." He swaggered past the desk, all fake confidence and too much cologne that probably cost more than Nox's entire wardrobe.
"Oops," he said, the word lazy and not even trying to sound accidental.
A full cup of bright orange juice tipped over, and the sticky liquid cascaded down onto Nox's already ruined shirt. The cold soaked through instantly, clinging to his skin.
The whole room erupted in laughter. Not just a few chuckles, but loud, open laughter that filled every corner of the classroom.
Nox lifted his head slowly, deliberately. His eyes locked onto Ms. Joy. She was watching the whole thing, arms crossed, her face completely placid and unconcerned. She'd seen it all. She'd seen Mark do it on purpose, seen the deliberate tilt of the cup.
He raised his hand, the gesture heavy with years of unheard complaints. "Ms. Joy," his voice came out flat, scraped clean of emotion. "There's been a spill."
Ms. Joy's gaze moved from him to Mark, who was now making a big show of wiping non-existent juice from his pristine hands. One perfectly shaped eyebrow went up.
"Oh, Nox," she sighed, her voice dripping with theatrical weariness, as if he were the one causing problems. "Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill. Mark, you really must be more careful around our more... delicate classmates." She gave a tight smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Boys will be boys, after all. You know how clumsy they can be."
The class took her words as permission, their laughter doubling, now with the teacher's official stamp of approval.
And as that sound washed over him, something deep inside Nox didn't snap. It didn't break. It just clicked into place. A profound, terrifying calm settled over him, and for the first time in years, the noise of the world went completely silent in his head.
'I get it now,' he realized, his face going completely blank. 'No one's coming. Not the teachers, not the cops, not the parents I never had. No one gives a damn.' If he wanted this to stop, he was the one who had to make it stop.
He reached down slowly, his hand disappearing into his worn-out school bag. The laughter around the room died down a little as a few students noticed his strange, deliberate stillness.
He pulled out a gun.
The room went dead silent. You could hear the clock ticking on the wall. Mark's smirk melted off his face, replaced by wide, terrified eyes. Even Ms. Joy's fake smile vanished, her face turning the color of old paper.
"What... Nox, what are you doing?" she stammered, her voice suddenly thin and shaky.
He didn't answer. He just looked at their faces, one by one. Fear. They were finally looking at him with fear instead of contempt. Good. He was ready. He was going to make every single one of them pay. He was going to end everything, starting with them and ending with himself.
Right as he started to raise the gun, a bright blue screen appeared directly in front of his face. It was see-through, floating in the air, and apparently only visible to him.
[Congratulations! You have met the requirements!]
[1st Player Chosen!]
[You have won the System!]
'What the actual hell is this?' He was still holding the gun, his finger brushing the trigger, but his brain just stopped working. A system? Requirements? Won what?
He stood there, staring at the floating words, the gun suddenly feeling less steady in his hand. The others in the room couldn't see the screen. They just saw the weird, quiet kid with the gun suddenly freeze and stare at empty air.
'Has he finally lost it?' someone probably thought.
And then the whole world started shaking.
It wasn't a little tremor. The ground bucked and roared, throwing people out of their seats. Desks toppled over, bookshelves crashed to the floor sending books flying everywhere, and students started screaming, pure panic as they scrambled over each other trying to find cover.
Ms. Joy shrieked and dove under her desk, all pretense of authority gone.
Nox stumbled but managed to grab the windowsill, his knuckles white from gripping so hard. He watched the chaos unfold, the blue screen still hovering patiently in front of him. The building groaned and screamed, walls cracking, ceiling tiles falling for what felt like forever but was probably only a few minutes.
When it finally stopped, the silence was almost worse than the noise. It was broken only by whimpers and the distant sound of things still collapsing somewhere else in the building.
New text scrolled across the screen.
[Merge complete.]
[Current world population: 20 billion.]
'Twenty billion? Earth has eight billion. What merge?'
[Dungeons have been placed throughout the world.]
[Mana has been injected into the atmosphere.]
[Good luck, Player Nox.]
The blue screen winked out of existence.
He stood there, gun still in hand, in the ruins of his classroom, on a world that had suddenly become very, very different.
A high-pitched scream echoed from the hallway outside, terrified and desperate, then cut off suddenly. Everyone froze.
"What was that?" a girl near the door whispered, her voice barely audible.
"Someone's out there!"
While the other kids were freaking out, pressing themselves against walls and hiding under desks, another blue screen popped up just for him.
[New Mission Issued!]
[First Dungeon Alert: A dungeon has been placed in your school.]
[Objective: Clear the dungeon.]
[Rewards: 1,000 EXP, 1x Random Skill, +5 Stat Points.]
[Accept? Y/N]
'A dungeon? In the school? And rewards?' It sounded insane, something out of those games the other kids were always talking about. But the wrecked room and the screaming outside were definitely real.
He looked down at the gun in his hand. His plan to kill everyone felt small now. Distant. Pointless even. This new "system" was offering him something different. A path to actual power, not just the temporary satisfaction of revenge.
He still felt that cold deadness inside, but now there was something else mixing with it. Curiosity.
He focused on the screen and mentally pressed 'Y'.
[Mission Accepted: Clear the Dungeon.]