Lucian Wrenford walked through the school hallway with his hands in his pockets and his hood half-up because the morning was too cold for June.
He didn't really care that he was late since the teachers didn't care either, and the building was already loud with the usual chaos of students trying to pretend they weren't bored out of their minds.
He passed a few familiar faces, nodded at a girl he vaguely remembered from homeroom, and made it halfway to his classroom before someone grabbed his arm.
"Yo, Lucian, check this out!" It was Milo, his annoying-but-kind-of-funny friend who always had something weird on his phone.
Lucian tried to shrug him off. "If it's another prank fail or cat video, I'm not watching it again."
"No, dude, just watch this. It's real, like real real."
He shoved his phone into Lucian's face before he could dodge it, and the screen was already playing a video.
A guy was riding his bike across an intersection.
And then a black SUV came out of nowhere.
Lucian watched the man's body flip into the air as the sound of metal crunching filled the speaker.
The guy landed on the pavement, unmoving, while people started screaming in the background.
The phone camera zoomed in just before cutting off.
Milo laughed. "Dude, he went flying like a ragdoll."
Lucian pushed the phone away. "What's wrong with you?"
"What? Everyone's watching it. It's viral on every platform."
Lucian stared at him. "That was someone dying, and you're laughing?"
"Bro, don't take it so seriously. It's just—"
"No, it's not just anything," Lucian said, shaking his head. "It's someone who died and now he's just a meme or a shock video. That's all people see him as. You think his family wants this online?"
Milo didn't answer, and Lucian walked off.
He hated death. Not just the idea of dying, but the way the world handled it. People didn't mourn anymore.
They reposted it with filters and stupid captions. They shared it, laughed at it, cried fake tears, and moved on the next hour.
And if it happened to him?
If Lucian died today, someone would record it, and it'd be on every social app before his body was even cold.
People he didn't know would comment "RIP" or "L" or "He should've looked both ways," and that would be it.
He walked into the classroom. His bag hit the floor with a soft thud as he dropped into his seat. His classmates were huddled near the windows, and everyone was talking at once.
He caught bits of it.
"…blood on the stairs…"
"…snapped in half…"
"…they had to shut it down…"
Lucian raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"
The guy in front of him turned. "The escalator. It broke or collapsed or something. One of the staff members got caught in it."
"What? Isn't that thing, like, new?"
"Yeah, but it just fell apart. Like the steps started moving too fast, then it cracked and jammed, and someone was on it."
Lucian frowned. "How bad is it?"
"Bad enough that the principal told everyone to avoid the entire east stairwell. There's police tape and medics."
Lucian stood up and looked out the window. Down below, he saw a stretcher being wheeled into an ambulance.
Someone was under the sheet. The red-and-blue lights flickered on the glass.
His stomach turned.
Another death.
Another body no one would remember except as a headline.
He checked his phone again. Notifications were popping in already.
"BREAKING: Escalator Mishap at Daelor High Leaves One Dead"
"Warning: Graphic Footage—Escalator Collapse at High School"
"Escalator Fails Across City: Malfunction or Sabotage?"
Lucian scrolled for a second before locking the screen.
He sat back down and stared at the ceiling.
He hated it. He hated that people could die like that and the world didn't even flinch.
And most of all, he hated that if it ever happened to him, it wouldn't be any different.
Lucian stood up when the final bell rang. The teacher barely looked up from her desk as students shuffled out, talking about nothing important like always.
Milo caught up to him near the lockers. "Hey, wanna go downtown? They reopened that VR café near the central station, and there's a limited event."
Lucian shook his head. "Not today."
"Come on, man, you're always going straight home."
"Yeah, and that's where I'm going now."
Milo sighed and gave him a playful punch in the arm. "You're no fun. Alright, see you tomorrow."
Lucian walked alone through the front gate. The sky was still cloudy, and the air smelled like rain that hadn't happened yet. He didn't have headphones on this time. He just wanted quiet.
He crossed the street near the campus. Cars honked in the distance, and a bus rolled past him.
He stepped onto the next intersection.
Then something flashed in the corner of his eye.
A screech. A roar of an engine.
A black sedan barreled through the red light.
It was too fast.
He turned, and his mouth opened—but he didn't get to say anything.
The car slammed into him.
Pain exploded in his ribs. His body flipped into the air. His leg bent the wrong way. He hit the ground hard, and his head bounced against the pavement.
The world spun.
He couldn't breathe. He heard yelling.
Feet running toward him.
His fingers twitched, but he couldn't move anything else. His chest didn't rise. His vision blurred until it all went black.
And then—
He was standing.
But the street was still there.
His body wasn't. Well, it was, but it was lying on the road. People were crowding around it.
Lucian stared.
He didn't feel real. The wind passed through him. No one looked at him. They looked through him.
Then the voices started. But they weren't real voices. They were in his head.
"Omg this is the guy who died near Daelor High right??"
"Bro got folded like a chair."
"Why'd he just stand there? Was he suicidal or dumb?"
"Can't lie, the way his body flew was kinda wild."
"RIP tho fr."
"Not me watching this for the fifth time."
Lucian clutched his head. "Shut up," he muttered. But the comments kept coming, louder, faster, overlapping.
"This vid got 2 million views in an hour."
"They got a better angle from the security cam."
"Why does he look like that?"
"L take."
"He deserved it."
"Shut up!" He screamed, but no sound came out.
He stared at his own body, broken, still, surrounded by flashing lights and rubberneckers with phones in their hands.
His death had gone viral. Just like he feared.
He was just another video.Just another dead guy.
His knees gave out, but he didn't fall. He just floated. And then, all at once—everything went dark.
---
When Lucian opened his eyes, it wasn't to sirens or flashing lights.
It was green.
Tall trees rose around him, and sunlight filtered through the leaves in golden shafts. The air smelled like dirt and moss, and birds chirped in the distance.
He sat up quickly.
His hoodie and backpack were gone, replaced with a dark tunic and rough pants. His shoes were now leather boots, light but sturdy. He brushed some leaves off his arms and looked around.
He was a completely different person.
No streets, no buildings, and no people.
Just forest—thick, untouched, and too quiet.
"Am I dead?" he muttered.
A sharp chime buzzed in the air, and glowing text appeared in front of his face.
[System Booting…]
[Welcome, Lucian Wrenford.]
[Death Count: 1]
[New World Detected. Quest Installation In Progress…]
He stared at it, frozen. "What the hell is this?"
The text hovered in the air like a floating screen, solid but transparent. He waved his hand through it, and it didn't disappear.
His thoughts spun. He remembered the car. His own broken body on the road, and now this.
More text popped up, colder than the last.
[Soul Transfer Complete]
[You have entered: The Shattered Realm]
[First Quest Will Begin Shortly…]
Lucian took a shaky breath and scanned the forest again. No signs, no roads, nothing that looked remotely like a tutorial. Just trees.
He tried to stay calm, but another alert hit before he could think.
[Death Detected. Loop System Activated]
[Warning: Death Limit Tied to Quest Objectives. Consequences Apply.]
"Death limit?" he said under his breath. "What, I don't get infinite retries?"
He took a few slow steps forward, pushing a low-hanging branch out of the way. The air was warm but dry, and the silence was almost unnatural—like the world was waiting for something.
This wasn't a coma dream.
This wasn't a glitchy VR sim.
And it sure as hell wasn't home.
Lucian clenched his fists. "Okay… fine. I'm here. So what now?"
The forest didn't answer, but the System did.
[First Quest Initialized.]
[Protect the Target. Quest Failure: Death Limit – 5]
Lucian's eyes narrowed.
Protect who? And why the hell did he only have five deaths?