Chapter 1: Just Another Night
Ethan hadn't given much thought to the future during his first two years at university.
Like most nineteen-year-olds, he figured tomorrow would always show up, no matter how many lectures he skipped or how many nights he burned through gaming and chugging energy drinks.
He wasn't dumb—just lazy in that cocky, self-assured way young people often are, convinced the world would wait for him to get his act together.
But time has a way of sneaking up. By his third year, the vibe around him shifted.
Friends who once matched his slacker energy started landing internships, talking about grad school, or at least pretending they had a plan.
Even the die-hard procrastinators were quietly finding their footing, piecing together résumés and side hustles.
For the first time, Ethan felt it: the creeping realization that he didn't have a direction. And that scared him.
It wasn't a dramatic epiphany—just a slow, nagging pressure. He started small, almost invisible changes.
Late nights of gaming turned into late nights in the library or the lab.
He joined study groups, took on side projects, even volunteered to help professors with grunt work, anything to pad his résumé.
It wasn't passion driving him; it was survival. He didn't want to be just another graduate with a degree that gathered dust.
Tonight was one of those long, grinding nights. His team had finally wrapped their capstone project—a simulation model for environmental analytics.
It wasn't flawless, but it was solid, and for once, Ethan felt a flicker of pride.
The final presentation was done, the adrenaline was fading, and now exhaustion hit like a tidal wave.
He slumped into his seat on the late-night bus, the hum of the engine blending with the quiet of the outer-city road.
The neon glow of the city had faded miles back. Streetlamps were sparse now, casting fleeting pools of light on the asphalt.
Beyond the windows, the world dissolved into dark silhouettes of trees and endless fields stretching into nothing.
It was nearly midnight.
The bus was almost empty: an old man dozing by a window, a woman scrolling blankly on her phone, and the driver, whose tired eyes flicked between the road and the dashboard.
The rest was just silence, broken only by the low drone of the engine.
Ethan leaned back, rubbing his eyes.
His phone buzzed, classmates flooding the group chat with memes or whining about deadlines.
He ignored them, too drained to care.
Then he remembered a message from earlier, something his friend Alex had sent on a whim: "Offline game. Pretty cool. Not on Play Store. Try it, you'll like it."
The file name was suspiciously plain—SoulTrial.apk.
Ethan smirked. Probably some sketchy indie game, but boredom and curiosity were a dangerous mix.
He tapped the icon.
The screen flickered once, then loaded a stark white menu on a black background.
No flashy graphics, no ads, just clean text.
Almost too clean, like it was trying to hide something.
A short chime played, followed by a line of text:
[Welcome, Player. Please answer a few questions to begin your journey.]
He raised an eyebrow. "Alright, mysterious game. Let's see what you've got."
The first question popped up:
[Enter Name: _]
Ethan's smirk widened. He had a running joke with himself for games like this, especially ones with a xianxia vibe.
He always picked the same name: Lu Sheng.
It sounded like something straight out of a webnovel, heroic and over-the-top.
He typed it in, chuckling softly.
[Would you like to reincarnate?]
He snorted, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the other passengers. "Sure, why not," he muttered, tapping the screen.
[How?]
[Enter: _]
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "What, they're asking how I want to die?" he whispered to himself, amused.
He thought for a second, then typed: Quietly, with a flash. Why not? It sounded dramatic enough.
[Favorite anime from childhood?]
"Pokémon," he typed without hesitation. Easy choice. Not like he had watched many at that time.
[Most impactful scene or memory from that anime?]
That one made him pause.
He hadn't watched Pokémon in years, not since he was a kid sprawled on the living room floor, glued to the TV.
Blastoise vs. Charizard?
The Johto League?
Mega Greninja?
Nah, none of those felt right.
Then it hit him—a memory from a movie he'd watched over and over as a kid, one that had stuck with him for reasons he couldn't quite explain.
"Deoxys vs. Rayquaza," he typed, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
[Franchise you've been most interested in recently?]
"Soul Land," he answered.
He'd been binging the novels and donghua lately, sucked into the world of martial spirits and cultivation.
It felt like the kind of place Lu Sheng would thrive.
The questions kept coming, each one stranger than the last.
Not hard, just… personal. Favorite type of hero? Biggest fear? What kind of power would you want? It was like the game was trying to crawl inside his head, learning who he was.
The interface stayed simple, almost human, like he was chatting with someone instead of filling out a character creation screen.
He kept answering, half-expecting a generic RPG to load up any second.
Then the final question appeared.
[Select game mode:]
[Easy] [Normal] [Hard] [Hell] [Nightmare]
Ethan laughed under his breath. "Is that even a question? I'm not some try hard gamer," he mumbled.
"I play for fun. I play to win." He tapped Easy without a second thought.
[Understood. Beginning Initialization.]
"Yeah, yeah start quickly, the time it is taking we will be at my stop before it can even start."
He said, finding it somewhat fun way to start the game.
The roaming continued.
The screen pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then his phone vibrated so hard it nearly slipped from his hand.
The bus lights flickered, stuttering like a dying bulb.
Outside, the darkness beyond the windows turned blinding white, swallowing the road, the trees, the entire world.
"The hell is tha-!"
The driver shouted something, his voice sharp with panic, but Ethan never caught the end of it.
The last thing he saw was his phone screen, glowing with faint gold letters that hadn't been there before:
{Welcome, Lu Sheng}
{Game Starts}