Chapter 1
The rain didn't just fall; it hammered against the pavement, matching the storm raging inside my chest. I trudged home, water soaking through my cheap shoes, feeling completely hollowed out.
I had just been fired.
It was the job I had broken my back for. The one I stayed late for every single night, thinking loyalty actually mattered. Turns out, I was just a budget cut waiting to happen. Life, it seemed, had a sick sense of humor. Only yesterday, my girlfriend had packed her bags and left, citing that I was "too focused on work" and "not present enough."
Well, I was present now. Present in the rain, jobless, single, and broke. Everything I had built was now a shattered wreck at my feet.
As I approached the turn for my street, I stopped to let a strange cat pass.
The cat was crossing the road. But this wasn't a normal stray. It moved with a fluid, unnatural grace, its coat shimmering with a peculiar hue that seemed to shift between oil-slick black and deep indigo. Its tail was impossibly long, trailing behind it like a shadow.
It stopped. It looked right at me. Its eyes were a vivid, piercing purple a color that definitely shouldn't exist in nature.
I shivered, and not just from the cold. I turned the corner toward my apartment building, desperate to get inside, but a prickling sensation on the back of my neck forced me to look back.
The cat was still there. And it was grinning. A wide, human like grin that stretched way too far across its face.
Heart pounding, I scrambled inside and locked the door. I stood in the shower for an hour, letting the hot water scold my skin, trying to wash away the image of those purple eyes. I sat in the dark that night, staring at the wall, wondering how my life had spiraled so far, so fast. I thought I had everything figured out.
I was dead wrong.
The next morning, the rain had stopped, but the fog in my head hadn't cleared. I decided to head to the park, hoping fresh air would help me figure out my next move.
I pulled on my jacket and opened the front door. My breath hitched.
The cat was there again. Sitting on the welcome mat.
For a split second, the world tilted. My vision warped, the hallway stretching and twisting like a funhouse mirror. I saw flashes of a different sky, a burning dark purple sun, and jagged mountains. I blinked hard, and the vision snapped back to normal. The cat was gone.
"I'm losing it," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "Stress. It's just stress."
I walked to the park and slumped onto a bench. Despite the crisp morning air and the noise of the city, a heavy, unnatural sleepiness washed over me. It felt like a lead blanket settling on my shoulders. I couldn't fight it. My eyes drifted shut.
I didn't dream of the park. I dreamt of the Void.
I saw multiple universes floating like bubbles in an endless sea of purple black space. They stretched into infinity, vibrating with energy. Then, in the center of the nothingness, a massive, cosmic eye blinked open. It focused solely on me, its voice booming not in my ears, but directly into my mind:
"Hmm... You. How can you see this?"
SPLAT.
I woke up confused thinking am must be losing it because of the recent events. I was on the park bench, and a pigeon had just dropped a wet, white load right on my shoulder.
"Perfect," I groaned, wiping it off with a leaf. "Even nature is treating me like a toilet."
I walked home in shame, threw my clothes in the washer, and tried to ignore the lingering vibration of that voice in my head.
Four days later, a flicker of hope appeared. A friend called about a job opening a decent one. I put on my only clean suit, grabbed my headphones, and boarded the crosstown bus.
As the city blurred past the window, I felt it again. That same heavy, inescapable exhaustion. I checked my watch. I had twenty minutes. A five-minute nap won't hurt, I told myself.
That was the biggest mistake of my life.
The moment my eyes closed, the hum of the bus engine vanished. The smell of stale air and diesel was replaced by the scent of ozone and freezing cold.
I opened my eyes. The bus was gone. The city was gone.
I was floating in a vast, white space. Standing before me was a Being. It shifted like smoke, half of it a void like black, the other half a blinding white. It had no face, yet I could feel it staring at me.
"You saw the celestial universes," the Being stated, its voice vibrating through my bones. "You saw the Watching Eyes. How is a mortal able to do that?"
Panic took over. "Where the hell am I? What did you do to me?" I screamed, throwing a tantrum fueled by pure terror. "Am I dreaming? Wake up, Kai! Wake up!"
The Being didn't appreciate the noise. It raised a hand and cast a spell.
It didn't look like magic in the movies. It felt like a sniper bullet tearing through my chest. I collapsed, clutching my heart replaced with a big hole, gasping for air that wasn't there. It was the most unimaginable, soul-crushing pain I had ever experienced. It felt like my very existence was being shredded.
As I lay there, convinced this was my deathbed, the Being floated closer.
"What is your name?" it asked.
"Kai... Maximus," I wheezed, tears streaming down my face. "The failure. The unlucky bastard."
The Being laughed a sound like cracking thunder and snapped its fingers.
The pain vanished instantly. I gasped, sucking in huge gulps of air.
"That was just a taste, Kai Maximus," it said. "I have something I want to show you. Understand that this is serious."
"Where am I?" I whispered. "Please... don't kill me."
"I know a good place for you," it said.
The Being tapped my forehead.
The white floor opened up. I began to fall. I tumbled through an endless pit, phasing through different worlds some made of fire, some of ice, some of pure machinery. The friction of reality tearing apart finally knocked me unconscious.
I woke up to the smell of damp earth and rot.
I opened my eyes. The sky wasn't blue; it was a bruised lavender. The trees around me were twisted, their leaves a vibrant, alien purple. This was a jungle, but not one from Earth.
Before I could even stand, a blood-curdling scream pierced the air.
I crawled through the underbrush and froze. In a small clearing, four green skinned, jagged toothed goblins were surrounding a girl. She looked ragged, like a slave or a prisoner, and she was terrified. They were going to kill her.
I wanted to run. I should have run. But then, a semi-transparent black window materialized in the air before my eyes, glowing with white text:
{ QUEST: SAVE THE GIRL }{ REWARD: Skill ENLIGHTENMENT }{FAILURE: DEATH}
I hesitated. I was just a fired office worker. What could I do? Then I remembered the pain of the Being's spell. The failure of my life. The "bullet" in my heart.
"No," I gritted out. "Not this time."
I grabbed a thick, fallen branch and charged, screaming to draw their attention.
It didn't go well.
"Hey! Over here, you ugly bastards!" I swung the stick. It connected with a goblin's head with a satisfying thwack, but the stick snapped.
I was cornered instantly. The girl took the chance to run, disappearing into the trees. Good for her. Bad for me.
The goblins swarmed me. Punches and kicks rained down. I tasted blood. My vision blurred. I felt my body going cold.
The black screen flickered into view again.
{ Is this all? Did you come here just to die? }
Something inside me snapped. The anger at my boss, my ex, the Being, the bird poop it all boiled over. If I'm going to die, I'm taking one of them with me.
I lunged. I ignored the pain, ignored the claws tearing at my clothes. I tackled the nearest goblin, driving my thumbs into its eyes. I grabbed a rock and smashed it down. Once. Twice.
Adrenaline flooded my system. I rolled, dodging a crude blade, and slammed the rock into the knee of the second one. It was a bloody, desperate brawl. I wasn't a fighter; I was a desperate animal.
I don't remember how it ended. I just remember the silence.
I lay amidst the bodies of the goblins, my breath rattling in my chest. The black window appeared one last time.
{ SUCCESSFUL }
Darkness took me.
I floated in and out of consciousness for four days.
When I finally woke up for real, the pain was a dull ache. I was lying on a bed of soft leaves. The girl I had saved was sitting nearby, grinding herbs. She had tended to my wounds.
As I sat up, the System screen popped up again, floating in my peripheral vision.
{ Enlightenment Level 1 Granted } { Language Barrier Removed }{ New Skill Acquired: Eye of Recon }(Ability to see and understand the nature of things and learn)
The girl noticed I was awake. She smiled a tired, grateful smile.
"I am Rumin," she said. Her voice was melodic, and thanks to the System, I understood her perfectly.
"I'm Kai," I croaked.
She told me her story as she changed my bandages. She was a spell caster, capable of using magic, though she was an outcast. She had been captured by slavers before escaping into this jungle.
"Do you know where we are?" I asked.
"No," she shook her head, her purple eyes filled with worry. "This place is ancient and dangerous. But we cannot stay here. We should try to head to the city to the north. It is safer there, and you might find answers."
I looked at the sky, then at the floating black window only I could see.
"To the city, then," I said.
{ QUEST: HEAD TO THE CITY }{ REWARD: SURVIVAL }{FAILURE: DEATH}
My journey had just begun.