The word "Accept!!" was a raw, primal scream torn from his very soul. It echoed in the infinite, silent blackness for a single, thrumming beat.
Then, the void snapped.
The comforting, disembodied voice that had offered him a second chance was gone, as if it had never existed. The darkness was replaced by an almost painful, sterile whiteness. Dev wasn't floating anymore; he was standing. He looked down at himself. He looked... solid. He was wearing the same blood-stained, torn clothes he'd died in. This was his "soul," a perfect echo of his last moment.
"Another one. Human. Species-Class: Dreg."
The voice was new. Female, cold, and utterly bored.
Dev's head snapped up. A woman stood across the white, featureless room, studying a floating, semi-transparent screen that only she seemed to see. She was tall, dressed in a sharp black suit that seemed out of place, and her beauty was as sharp and cold as her voice. She didn't look at him, her eyes fixed on the data.
"Probability of survival: 0.1%... no, wait... 0.08%. Pathetic."
"Who... who are you? Where am I?" Dev trembled, the cosmic whiplash overwhelming.
The woman, Selina, finally deigned to look at him. Her eyes were a piercing, intelligent grey, and they held absolutely zero sympathy.
"Listen fast, Dreg, because I don't like wasting my breath on a soul that's about to be extinguished," she said, her voice clipping every word. "You're in the Nexus Lobby. You accepted the contract. You are now designated Level 0."
"Level 0?"
"It means your power is zero," she scoffed, as if explaining to a toddler. "When you 'accept,' the System just binds to your soul's natural template. You're human, which means your natural stats are, cosmically speaking, garbage. You are a single-celled organism in an ocean of sharks. Your first trial, which begins in ten seconds, is against a Level 1 opponent."
A cold dread, far worse than the fear of death he'd just experienced, washed over Dev. "A Level 1? But... how do I win? You said I have no stats!"
Selina almost smiled. It was a cruel, thin gesture. "You don't. You die. 99.92% of your species does. That's the 'Human Filter.' But if you're not as useless as the rest, the System isn't just looking for strength. It's looking for two things: survivability and potential. It wants to see a hunger. Don't die. Don't give up. Show it you want power more than you want to live."
She tapped her screen. "My Faction, Ebonguard, gets a finder's fee if you actually pass. I'm not holding my breath. Good luck, Dreg."
"Wait, Faction? What—"
The floor dropped out from under him. The sterile white room vanished, replaced by a sickening lurch of non-existence.
[First Nexus Trial: Initiating!]
Dev slammed hard onto familiar, gritty asphalt. The air was thick with the stench of damp garbage and stale city rot. His eyes shot wide. He was back. He was in the alley. The same trash bins. The same flickering, distant highway light.
[Opponent: 'Gutter-Scab' (Level 1)]
[Victory Condition: Survive.]
A guttural, wet hiss echoed from the other end of the narrow space. It wasn't Devis.
It was a nightmare.
Standing where his bullies had been was a creature about four feet tall, hunched over with a back that rippled with exposed vertebrae. Its skin was a sickly, scaly grey, and its limbs seemed to have too many joints, bending at unnatural angles. A wide, lipless mouth opened, revealing rows of needle-like teeth. It was a low-level scavenger from some dimension of filth, and to Dev, it was a god of death.
As if on command, Dev's "status" flared in his vision.
Name: Dev
Level: 0
Faction: [Pending]
STR: 3 (Human - Dreg Class)
AGI: 4 (Human - Dreg Class)
CON: 2 (Human - Dreg Class)
SPI: 7 (Human - Dreg Class)
RES: 15 (Anomalous)
FGP: [Locked]
The creature hissed again and lunged. It didn't run; it scuttled, its limbs moving with a sickening, spider-like speed. Dev screamed and threw himself backward, his soul-body feeling sluggish and weak. His "Agility 4" was a joke.
The creature's claws, black and sharp as obsidian, raked across his chest.
The pain was unreal.
It wasn't physical pain. It was a thousand times worse. It was a cold, searing agony that felt like his very essence was being torn apart.
[WARNING: Soul-Integrity at 70%!]
Dev stared in horror. This wasn't a health bar. That was him. His soul. His existence. If that hit zero...
The Gutter-Scab tilted its head, seemingly amused by the new "toy." It was playing with him. The realization sent a new jolt of terror through Dev, but beneath it, something else stirred. Something dark and familiar.
It was the same feeling he'd had under Devis's boot. The same impotent, helpless rage.
The creature lunged again. Dev dodged, but too slow. A claw tore into his shoulder.
[Soul-Integrity at 55%!]
He was going to die again. He'd been given a "second chance" only to be extinguished as prey, as food, for some cosmic... thing. He was weak in life, and he was even weaker in death.
"No..." he whispered, his voice trembling as he scrambled backward.
The Gutter-Scab, clearly bored now, reared back, its mouth unhinging for a final, tearing bite.
This was it. The same end. Helpless. Pathetic.
The face of Devis, sneering, flashed in his mind. The laughter. The casual kick. The sound his head made on the concrete.
"NO!"
It wasn't a plea. It was a defiance.
"NOT AGAIN!" he roared, his voice cracking. "I WON'T... I WON'T DIE LIKE THIS! I... I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT POWER!"
His soul flared. A white-hot, desperate need, a hunger born from 14 years of humiliation and a brutal, pathetic death. The System, the cold, impersonal judge, registered the outburst.
[Subjective Time-Dilation: Analyzed]
[Hostile Environment: Confirmed]
[Host Vitals: Critical]
[Future Growth Potential (FGP): Unlocking...]
The world seemed to slow for just a fraction of a second.
[High-Tier Trauma Signature Detected: 'Mark of the Bully (Devis)']
[Analyzing Soul-State... Host possesses obsessive-compulsive 'Hunger for Strength']
[Rating: EX-Rank]
[Survival Condition Met: 'Last Stand']
[Temporary Skill Unlocked: [Last Stand]. When Soul-Integrity is below 10%, all stats are temporarily boosted to match the opponent's primary threat-level.]
The creature's jaws snapped forward, aimed at his neck.
[WARNING: Soul-Integrity at 9%!]
[SKILL ACTIVATED: LAST STAND]
A jolt of raw, agonizing power flooded Dev's limbs. It wasn't strength; it was pure, desperate will given form. The world snapped back to normal speed, but Dev was already moving.
Fueled by nothing but rage and a new, terrifying energy, he didn't run. He lunged forward. His hand grabbed the only "weapon" in the alley—an ethereal echo of a trash can lid.
The Gutter-Scab's eyes widened, its primitive brain unable to comprehend the prey fighting back.
Dev screamed, a sound of pure madness, and swung the lid with all his borrowed might, slamming it clang against the side of the creature's head.
The monster was stunned. It wasn't truly hurt—his Level 0 strength, even boosted, was pathetic—but it was shocked. A... bacteria... had dared to strike it.
It hissed, a new, truly enraged sound, and reared back, its claws glowing with a faint, dark energy. It was done playing.
But before it could lunge...
[TRIAL COMPLETE: Time Limit Reached]
[Analyzing Performance...]
[Survivability: Confirmed]
[Combativeness: Confirmed]
[Future Growth Potential (FGP): S-Rank]
[Hunger for Strength: EX-Rank]
[VICTORY!]
A profound, echoing chime filled the alley.
[Calculating... Host 'Dev' has passed the Human Filter.]
[You are now an official member of the System of Nexus.]
[You are now Level 1.]
The Gutter-Scab vanished, its attack frozen in time. The alley dissolved.
Dev was floating in the white room again, his phantom limbs shaking. Across from him, Selina was staring at her data screen, her cold, professional mask completely shattered. Her mouth was hanging open.
"S-Rank... EX-Rank..." she whispered, her voice full of disbelief.
A new, powerful voice—the true, impersonal voice of the System—spoke in his mind.
[Resurrection Protocol: Initiated. Binding Soul to Host Body...]
The last thing Dev saw before the world went completely black was the look of utter, profound shock on his handler's face.